Koll Sells, Leases Back HQ Building

NEWPORT BEACH, CA-The Koll Co. has sold the corporate headquarters building it has owned and occupied for the past 19 years and has signed a three-year lease to remain in the building while it seeks another location in Orange County’s John Wayne Airport area. The buyer of the 53,000-sf building at 4343 Von Karman Ave. was the Steadfast Cos. of Newport Beach.The Koll Co.’s lease with Steadfast is for approximately 7,500 sf in the building it has occupied since 1986, according to Donald M. Koll, founder and managing principal of the company. “We felt this was an opportune time to sell and focus our energies on finding or developing a corporate headquarters in the airport area that better suits our company’s operational needs,” Koll says.Both Koll and Steadfast were represented by Gary Stache and Don Nourse of CB Richard Ellis. Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but comparable building sales in Orange County that have been published on GlobeSt.com have reported prices ranging from the high $200s per sf to the mid-$300s per sf.Koll explains that his company “has evolved considerably since we sold our previous real estate services company and our construction firm.” Koll, which has developed more than 85 million sf of office, industrial and retail space since its founding in 1962, occupied approximately 25% of the 4343 Von Karman building before selling it.Jerry Yahr, a managing principal with Koll, says the lease with Steadfast will provide the company with enough time to find land or a building for a corporate headquarters. He says the approximate size requirement will be 15,000 sf.The Koll Co. owns and manages 2.2 million sf of multi-tenant light industrial space throughout Southern California and has an additional 750,000 sf under development or in planning. The portfolio includes more than 1 million sf of multi-tenant light industrial space at five properties that it has acquired in the past 18 months in Riverside, Los Angeles and San Diego counties.