BRIDGE Housing Unveils 240 Units at Armstrong Place

Armstrong Place,
Brian Rose Photo

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Affiliates of nonprofit BRIDGE Housing have opened Armstrong Place, a two-component housing development at 5600 Third St. in San Francisco totaling 116 affordable seniors apartments and 124 affordable townhomes, called Armstrong Place Senior Housing and Armstrong Townhomes. Armstrong Place Senior includes 7,600 square feet of commercial space, community services and retail shops, with 23 of the apartments are set aside for formerly homeless seniors participating in San Francisco’s Direct Access to Housing program. Armstrong Townhomes are targeted for first-time homebuyers. Cynthia A. Parker, president and CEO of BRIDGE, says that pairing the senior apartments with family homes "helps prevent the seniors from feeling isolated, and this site offers convenient access to transit, shopping and community amenities.” Financing for Armstrong Place was provided by a variety of sources. Both properties were designed by David Baker+Partners. Nibbi Bros. Inc., was the general contractor for Armstrong Place Senior, and James E. Roberts-Obayashi Corp. was the general contractor for Armstrong Townhomes.

SeaMicro Inc. signed a sublease for 68,000 square feet of office space at 1237 E. Arques Ave. in Sunnyvale in an expansion and relocation of its headquarters. The company, a low-power server technology firm that is relocating from 3003 Bunker Hill Lane in Santa Clara, was represented by Sushma Malhotra of CresaPartners in San Jose. SeaMicro was attracted to the new building because it can hold an estimated 250 employees and offers data center space for more than 100,000 SeaMicro servers, Malhotra said. The sub-landlord, Harmonics Inc., was represented by Jones Lang LaSalle. The landlord is AMB.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Bayshore Beach Villas

Universe Holdings Real Estate Investment & Development LLC, a private investment group based in Century City, has acquired the 23-unit Bayshore Beach Villas apartments from Bayshore Beach Villas LLC for $5.5 million. According to listing brokers Rob Stepp and Dean Zander of Hendricks & Partners, Universal Holdings founder/CEO Henry Manoucheri "was drawn to this opportunity because of its irreplaceable location on the shore of Alamitos Bay" in the Belmont Shore area of Long Beach. The property comprises three separate buildings that share a central courtyard, with units that average 900 square feet in a mix of nine one-bedroom units, 13 two-bedroom units and a three-bedroom unit. Stepp advised that "with minor interior upgrades including the addition of dishwashers, upgraded appliances, new cabinets and countertops, the new owner could potentially increase the current rents by almost 25%, reaching the current submarket rent of $2.20 per square foot.”

Rexford Industrial has acquired a 48,350-square-foot industrial facility at 121-125 N. Vinedo Ave. in Pasadena that is 100% leased to the Los Angeles Times for more than $5.1 million in an all-cash buy. The purchase is for the firm’s Rexford Industrial Fund V REIT and "aligns with our strategy of acquiring stabilized and value-add industrial properties in strong infill markets,” said Howard Schwimmer, co-founder and senior managing partner of Rexford. Both Rexford and the seller, a partnership called Trio Associates, were represented by John Minervini, Robin Dodson, Erik Larson and Christopher Tolles of Cushman & Wakefield.

26520 Carl Boyer Dr.

Ashley Furniture Industries Inc. bought a 41,850-square-foot former Wickes building at 26520 Carl Boyer Dr. in the Centre Pointe Marketplace in Santa Clarita from C-III Loan Asset Management for $3.7 million in an REO deal. The seller was represented by managing director Matthew Sullivan of Lee & Associates-Investment Services Group, along with Lee & Associates-LA North/Ventura principal Christine Deschaine and associate Stephanie Skrbin. Ashley will anchor Centre Pointe Marketplace, a 650,000-square-foot retail center whose tenants include Bank of America, Starbucks, Subway and Panda Express. It is located within the Centre Pointe Business Park, a 1.6 million-square-foot complex of office and industrial buildings. Said Sullivan: “The property was only on the market for two or three months. We had a few offers, but Ashley Furniture was the most logical buyer. The company had already bought several former Wickes locations, and obviously the location and space was well suited for a furniture retailer.”

Engineering, consulting and commissioning firm Syska Hennessy Group has signed a 10-year lease to move its Los Angeles office to a 24,569-square-foot space at 800 Corporate Pointe in Culver City, where Syska Hennessy will be pursuing LEED Gold certification. The space will serve as a regional office for the company, supporting approximately 125 employees. Gary Brennen, co-president of Syska Hennessy, says the firm "chose this site specifically because of its sustainable design features, as we wanted a new office space that reinforced our collaborative work teams, while attaining LEED certification." Since Syska Hennessy "is a sustainable company and has worked on numerous LEED and sustainable design projects for our clients," Brennen says, "It is important for us to practice what we preach." Syska Hennessy’s new space is at an office campus originally developed by Symantec that features two LEED Gold certified buildings. The firm leased raw space that its engineers will convert to achieve LEED Gold certification. The company, which expects to complete its move and begin operations out of the new space by the end of June, was represented by Jones Lang LaSalle SVP Christina Noonan and associate Blake Searles. Property owner, Spear Street Capital, was represented by Carl Muhlstein, Andrew McDonald and Hayley Blockley of Cushman & Wakefield.

Buyers have acquired two apartment complexes in Los Angeles for a total of $6.5 million in two separate deals negotiated by Hirsch Sherman and Jared Levine of KW Commercial. One of the properties was 243 S. Rampart, a 13-unit non-rent-control complex that sold to a locally based all-cash buyer. The other property, known as Market Park Apartments, is a 50-unit complex that was purchased by an affordable housing developerwho plans to rehab the property in efforts to preserve existing affordable housing in the City of Inglewood.

SAN DIEGO COUNTY

Capstone Advisors of San Diego has acquired the 70% leased, 40,317-square-foot Mission Escondido Shopping Center at 201-205 W. Misson Ave. in Escondido for $3.9 million from a subsidiary of Beverly Hills-base Kennedy Wilson Properties. Capstone says it plans to renovate the property, which consists of two multi-tenant buildings that were built in 1985. The center "has a great infill location in Escondido’s downtown district and is home to a nice roster of tenants,” said Alex Zikakis, Capstone's founder and president. “Capstone Advisors is on the lookout for properties just like this one: good real estate that has been negatively impacted by the economic downturn.” Construction of the improvements is expected to begin this month, with completion slated for early fall 2011. Capstone was represented by Brent Bohlken of Grubb and Ellis and Tony Villase