Construction Starts On Stadium Gateway

ANAHEIM, CA–Construction has just begun but leasing activity is hot at the $40-million Stadium Gateway development, a 260,000-sf office building that’s a cornerstone of the city’s efforts to bring more businesses to the area around the Edison International Field baseball park.

The six-story office is being built by New Jersey-based Mack-Cali Realty Corp. and Summit Commercial Properties, the LA-based commercial development arm of Highridge Partners. It will stand at 1900 S. State College Blvd., next door to the stadium that’s the home of baseball’s Anaheim Angels.

Though Stadium Gateway won’t be finished until next summer, it already looks like it may be a “home run” for the development team. Greg Brown, one of the two Cushman & Wakefield brokers in charge of marketing the project, tells GlobeSt.com that computer-training giant New Horizons Worldwide Inc. recently signed a 10-year, $20-million deal for 80,000 sf (30%) of the space to use as its corporate headquarters.

“We’re also negotiating with a number of other [prospective] tenants for much of the remaining space,” confides Brown, who works in C&W’s Irvine office and closed the New Horizons deal with office colleague David Dowd.

The class A building is the office component of Sportstown Center, the city of Anaheim’s master-planned, mixed-use development that officials hope will bring the same type of success to the area around the ballpark that Disneyland has brought to the area surrounding the Anaheim Convention Center.

Brown won’t disclose the names of the prospective Stadium Gateway tenants that he and colleague Dowd are negotiating with today, citing standard confidentiality rules. “But I can say that they represent a good mix–high-tech companies, professional-services firms and the like,” he says.

The broker also tells GlobeSt.com that some of Stadium Gateway’s prospects currently rent office space in Orange County’s Airport Area and at least one other currently rents in West Los Angeles. Lease rates in both of those markets are roughly 30% or more higher than rents in Anaheim and most other parts of the Central OC market.

“Cutting your lease rate by 30% or more by moving to a brand-new building in Anaheim looks pretty good right now, whether you’re a company that needs affordable space to expand or a company that’s in a cost-cutting mode,” Brown says.