Xerox Centre Trades for Nearly $78M

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SANTA ANA, CA-WCB Properties and UBS Realty Investors have acquired the 321,000-sf Xerox Centre at 1851 E. First St. from tenant-in-common specialist Triple Net Properties for $77.5 million. The new owners plan to upgrade the property, which Santa Ana-based Triple Net bought for $60.5 million in 2003.Newport Beach-based WCB, a long-time player in the Southern California commercial real estate market, says its purchase of the 15-story office tower is part of its new push to acquire and develop in California. Xerox Centre, which includes an eight-story parking structure with 1,125 stalls, will be its flagship property in Orange County, it says.WCB plans to “reposition Xerox Centre in the market and return it to a ‘best in class’ building in terms of service, systems and quality and to capitalize on its improving location,” says Sean Tabor, SVP of WCB Properties. Acquisition of the property marks the return to Orange County of WCB, which owns two million sf of commercial property in San Diego, San Francisco and Minneapolis.Xerox built the 15-story office tower in 1989 as its Southern California regional headquarters and sold it in the late 1990s. The property, situated at the interchange of Interstate 5 and the 55 Freeway, is 85% occupied with a tenant roster that includes Xerox Corp., Ashland Oil and Merrill Lynch.Triple Net was represented by Tony Malk, Kevin Crummy and Summer Kaufman of Eastdil Realty. WCB represented itself.Part of the appeal of the Xerox Centre, according to Tabor, is that the City of Santa Ana is supporting and pursuing redevelopment within the area surrounding the office development. This includes several mid to high-rise residential projects that are in various stages of planning.WCB has named Mark Friend and Simon Dillon of the Anaheim office of CB Richard Ellis as the leasing agents for Xerox Centre. Friend says the building is positioned to take advantage of the historically low vacancy and record high rental rates now enjoyed by the Orange County office market.