Law Firm Takes Full Floor at Plaza Tower

COSTA MESA, CA—Haynes and Boone LLP has signed a 22,466-square-foot lease at Plaza Tower at 600 Anton Blvd. here. The law firm is relocating from Irvine Towers to occupy a full floor at the 21-story, class-A office building adjacent to South Coast Plaza and the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. The tenant plans to occupy the space by September. It will join an extensive roster of law firms including Dorsey and Whitney, Bingham McCutchen, Baker & Hostetler and Snell & Wilmer. The 470,000-square-foot building is located next to the 405 freeway. It joins Center Tower and Park Tower as the buildings that collectively house 10 out of 19 Orange County AM 100 law firms, making the area a preeminent location for law-firm tenants. Rick Kaplan, Robert Lambert and Matt Moore of Cushman & Wakefield represented Plaza Tower in the transaction. Current largest tenants at City Tower include UC Irvine and several Fortune 500 companies.

IRVINE, CA—Arbonne has renewed its lease for the entire 146,482-square-foot building at 9400 Jeronimo Ave. here, which serves as the skincare-products manufacturer's global headquarters. Arbonne has been located in the building since 2004; the new 60-month lease term commences in November. Michael Props, corporate managing director; Royce Sharf, EVP; and Jeff Cannon, corporate managing director of Savills Studley's Orange County office, represented the tenant in the transaction. The landlord, the Irvine Co., was represented in-house by Sue Lyle. The transaction represents the largest lease executed in Orange County in the first quarter, according to the Q1 2014 Studley Report. 9400 Jeronimo is part of a four-building campus and offers a prominent corner location and convenient freeway access.

SALES

LATHROP, CA—A brokerage team from DTZ's San Francisco office has been appointed exclusive agent to sell the former NSG Pilkington Float Glass Manufacturing property here comprising ±185.59 acres at 500 E. Louise Ave. With the scheduled closing of the plant due to required infrastructure upgrades and the decision to sell, Pilkington North America selected the DTZ marketing team of SVPs David Klein and Jill Arias, VP Jennifer Essner and associate Matthew Lehman to market the site to sell by year-end 2014. The City of Lathrop has expressed its willingness to fast-track entitlements and permits in a collaborative effort to attract the optimal buyer, underscoring its pro-business approach. Due to the site's high power capacity, large open space, I-5 freeway accessibility, nearby new housing starts and proximity to the diverse San Joaquin County and Bay Area labor pools, the site is attractive to users in the technology, automotive, distribution, manufacturing and retail industries

LONGMONT, CO—An unnamed seller has sold Butterball Turkey's former processing plant at the intersection of First Ave. and Main St. downtown here to San Diego-based Pathfinder Partners LLC and its development partner 150 Main LLC for $4.5 million. The property consists of seven parcels of land on 27.5 acres with 326,000 square feet of building space. The facility, which closed its doors in 2011 after the company was sold by ConAgra and processing shifted to China, will be redeveloped in multiple phases, potentially including multifamily, commercial and retail uses. The site contains the main plant, lab space, storage and parking facilities. The construction of a 250-unit, modern apartment community will get underway following the demolition of the three-story main plant building. Groundbreaking slated for late 2014. 

NAPA VALLEY, CA—San Francisco-based Flynn Properties Inc. has purchased the Carneros Inn, a luxury resort in Napa Valley's Carneros winegrowing district. Flynn's properties include Esperanza, the Auberge resort in Los Cabos, Mexico. PlumpJack Group will continue as the management company for the Carneros Inn. As part of its initial phase of ownership, Flynn plans to make significant enhancements to the property, including upgrades to the common areas, room amenities and restaurant offerings.

FINANCING

KLAMATH FALLS, OR—Stuart Oswald, SVP/managing director of NorthMarq Capital's Seattle office, has arranged $14.45 million in financing for Quail Park at Crystal Terrace, a senior-housing development here. The development includes one three-story building with 127,618 square feet and 67 units and 20 one-story cottages. The facility provides both independent and assisted living services, and is licensed for 43 assisted living beds. The deal is a combination non-recourse bridge loan and construction loan rolled into one transaction. A portion of the proceeds will be used for expansion of the existing facility with the addition of a 24-unit, 36-bed memory care facility to be developed on an adjacent parcel. Financing was structured with a 75% loan-to-value, 25-year amortization and a four-year term with a potential 12-month extension. NorthMarq arranged financing for the borrower through its relationship with a non-recourse bridge lender.

RENTON, WA—Amos Smith and Sean Skelton in Johnson Capital's Irvine, CA, office have arranged a $27.6-million loan secured by the Bristol I at Southport apartment complex here. The property contains 188-units and 10,037 square feet of commercial space on a premier waterfront property at the base of Lake Washington in the greater Seattle area. The unnamed borrower, which developed the project, is a privately owned company with expertise in mixed-use development, construction and asset management for multifamily and mixed-use properties located in urban locations throughout metropolitan Seattle. The 15-year loan was provided by an insurance company. Proceeds from the loan were used to retire existing debt and fund renovations that include unit refurbishments designed to create energy cost savings and a “re-skinning” of the property's exterior to maintain consistency with the adjacent Bristol II at Southport, a property also developed by the borrower.

FOSTER CITY, CA—CBRE Capital Markets' Debt & Structured Finance team today announced that it has secured $11.15 million in non-recourse financing for Foster City Medical Pavilion, a 39,842-square-foot medical-office building here. Michael Walker, VP, of CBRE's San Francisco office, arranged the financing on behalf of Swift Real Estate Partners with a publicly traded mortgage REIT. The loan proceeds were used to acquire the approximately 50%-leased multi-tenant building. The loan was structured to finance capital expenditures with a secondary funding for 100% of the projected tenant improvements and leasing commissions. The non-recourse loan, which represents 60% of the borrower's cost to acquire, upgrade and re-tenant the building, is interest-only for the duration of the term and carries an attractive floating-rate spread with prepayment flexibility.

AWARDS

NEWPORT BEACH, CA—The Design Build Institute of America Western Pacific Region recently held its annual awards ceremony here to recognize the most outstanding design-build projects in the Western Region. Among those honored were the design-build team of St. Jude Medical Center, Petra-Integrated Construction Strategies, McCarthy Building Co. and Taylor Design, which won a Distinction Award for the design and construction of the St. Jude Medical Center Northwest Tower project in Fullerton, CA. In addition, PCL Construction was presented with aMerit Award for the University Student Union at California State University San Marcos and a Distinction Award for the Green Build Terminal Expansion at the San Diego International Airport.

LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA—A local high school senior has been named the winner of JLL's first-ever “Design Your Skyline” contest.  Alan Ong, a senior enrolled at Orange County High School of the Arts in Santa Ana, created “Metropolis” for the JLL contest, which appealed for artistic renditions of skylines across the country. Based on the commercial real estate firm's annual Skyline Review, which provides a building-by-building assessment of 43 city centers across the country to investors, a call was made to high school art students to interpret what their own skyline means to them and their community. Ong, who moved from the East Coast to the West when he was just eight years old, created an original hand-drawn design that was then computer-edited to smooth out textures. Ong received a $2,000 grant for his award-winning design. To view the design, click here. 

EXECUTIVE MOVES

DENVER—JCR Capital Investment Corp., an alternative real estate fund manager focused on providing capital to middle market sponsors, has hired Rob Brown as managing director and head of the firm's new bridge-loan program. Brown will oversee day-to-day operations and will be responsible for the program, which will focus on transitional loans of between $2 million and $10 million, with terms of one to four years, 5.5% to 6.5% fixed or floating rates and up to 75% loan-to-value. The program is available to acquisitions, refinancing, and mini perms. Prior to joining JCR, Brown was VP of Deutsche Bank's Commercial Real Estate Group in New York, where he was responsible for origination of CMBS, mezzanine loans, bridge loans, and special-situation products.

IRVINE, CA—TRI Pointe Homes Inc. has appointed Linda Mamet as VP corporate marketing. Mamet has served on the board, program committee, and advisory groups of PCBC for more than 10 years. With more than 13 years of experience in the homebuilding industry, Mamet has expertise in all aspects of marketing and sales, including consumer research, market analysis, design excellence, and customer relationship management. Prior to joining TRI Pointe she served as VP of sales and marketing, Southern California and Nevada, for Pulte Group Inc. across the Centex, Pulte Homes, and Del Webb brands. Mamet's previous experience in the homebuilding industry also includes corporate VP sales and marketing at John Laing Homes. 

LADERA RANCH, CA—Select Capital Corp., a dealer/manager for private offerings and public non-traded REITs sponsored by Strategic Storage Holdings LLC, has hired Christine Nguyen as director of national accounts. In her new role, Nguyen, who will be will be based in the Ladera Ranch office, is responsible for building the selling group for SSH's offerings and developing strategic partnerships with all broker-dealer relationships. SCC is currently the dealer/manager for Ladera Ranch-based Strategic Storage Trust II Inc., a public non-traded REIT targeting the self-storage market. Before she joined SSH, Nguyen was the lead platform manager of alternative investments at LPL Financial. Previously, she was an alternative-investment sales executive at First Allied Securities and was a senior risk management officer at T.D. Waterhouse.