BREA, CA—Newport Beach-based Western Realco LLC and its partner, Boston-based AEW Capital Management, LP, purchased a 9.78-acre land site here, which included an approximately 68,807-square-foot office/data center building.
Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF) executive managing directors Jeff Read and Scott Read, and managing director Greg Osborne, represented San Francisco-based Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: DLR) in the sale of the Brea, site for an undisclosed sum.
The 3300 E. Birch Street building was occupied by InfoCrossing, until December 2014. Originally constructed in 1980 by Beckman Coulter to support its large, locally based headquarters operations, the building was home to several data center operators over the years.
Digital Realty, the world's largest data center REIT with a market capitalization of approximately $9 billion, had owned the property since 2003. The sale was a part of Digital Realty's overall strategy of selling non-strategic assets to refine its portfolio focus and recycle capital toward core assets. With nearly six acres of excess land on site, in addition to the existing building, Digital Realty was able to sell the property at premium pricing given unprecedented demand for development opportunities in the Orange County marketplace.
Following its acquisition, Western Realco intends to work with the city of Brea to develop a state-of-the-art, approximately 216,000-square-foot industrial building on a speculative basis.
Gary Edwards, principal with Western Realco, indicates that the company will remain active in the Orange County industrial marketplace. “We will continue to seek value-add industrial opportunities, including land for speculative development and existing buildings with turn-around potential, to take advantage of strengthening fundamentals in Southern California,” Edwards said.
Western Realco is among the most active developers and investors in Orange County. This is the firm's third industrial land acquisition in Brea in the past three years. The firm also purchased a four-acre site and a 20-acre site within one mile from the Birch Street site.
Digital Realty Trust, Inc. supports the data center and colocation strategies of more than 600 firms across its secure, network-rich portfolio of data centers located throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Western Realco, established in 1972, is a real estate business firm specializing in the development and acquisition of institutional quality industrial and office properties.
services.
© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to asset-and-logo-licensing@alm.com. For more inforrmation visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
