CT Affiliate Snags $26M HQ/Industrial

GARDEN GROVE, CA-An affiliate of CT Realty Investors has acquired a 210,000-square-foot building at 12131 Western Ave. here from a family trust for $26 million. The building combines elements of a corporate headquarters with manufacturing and distribution facilities under one roof. The acquisition marks CT Realty's 9^th purchase so far this year.

Michael Hartel and Mike Bouma with Voit Real Estate Services' Irvine office and Clyde Stauff with the Irvine office of Colliers International represented the seller in the transaction. CT represented itself.

The facility is 100% leased to Money Mailer LLC, a marketing company that provides direct-to-consumer coupons that are available via mail or through online printing and mobile devices. The tenant has used the property as its corporate headquarters since 2007.

The building is located in the master-planned Garden Grove Business Center in the West Orange County submarket near the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Located on 9.64 acres, the cross-dock property offers approximately 50,000 square feet of two-story, open-plan office space and 160,000 square feet of manufacturing, warehouse and distribution space, including a 6,000-square-foot production office. The building features 21 dock-high positions, two ground-level doors, 26-ft.-to-32-ft. warehouse ceiling clearance, an elevator, high-efficiency T-5 lighting and a high-volume sprinkler system throughout. The property is also rail served by Union Pacific Railroad and includes significantly upgraded power.

According to Carter Ewing, managing partner of CT Realty, “The West Orange County submarket is one of the most desirable markets in Southern California as a result of its port proximity, highly skilled workforce and desirable corporate-headquarters location. The area remains extremely supply constrained, and this submarket in particular is seeing a depleting inventory of industrial space. When you couple that with a very accessible labor force and strong user demand, these dynamics are driving value growth for well-located, functional product. This is a wonderful addition to our portfolio.”

Stauff says the building is one of the most high-end structures within the business center, “and the fact that it combines so many different elements in one building makes it a solid investment decision on the part of CT Realty. The combination of the administrative and production facilities with manufacturing and distribution means its occupant can conduct all of its business from one central location, and that was a strong selling point for the investor.”

Stauff adds that demand for this type of building in Orange County is at an all-time high. “There are so few industrial buildings of this size close in to the population centers it serves that when they do come on the market, there is usually no lack of interested investors.”

As GlobeSt.com reported last week, a strong need for high-quality industrial product is fueling a certain degree of speculative development in Orange County, Kurt Strasmann, senior managing director of the Orange County region for CBRE, tells GlobeSt.com. Pent-up demand from the recession and a recovering economy are creating this need and encouraging developers to build.