International Fund Buys Office Project for $44M

NEWPORT BEACH, CA-The Ferrado Group, an international investment fund, has acquired the 117,440-sf Wells Fargo Building at 4590 MacArthur Blvd. from locally based KBS Realty Advisors, according to CB Richard Ellis brokers who represented the seller. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but industry sources indicate that the buyer paid nearly $44 million for the property, which previously traded for about $26 million in 2004.

The class A office building at 4590 MacArthur is close to the John Wayne Airport at the corner of MacArthur Boulevard and Birch Street. The CBRE team that represented KBS Realty Advisors included Robert Smith, Michael Kane, Karen Scholte, Paul Jones, Kevin Shannon, John Weiner and Jeff Morgan. The buyer was represented by Pepe Tena, chief executive officer of the Ferrado Group in the US.

The six-story office project was built in 1978 and was 94% occupied at the time of the sale. Among the tenants, in addition to main tenant Wells Fargo, are Palace Investment and Premiere Business Centers, the latter an office suites subsidiary of the Irvine-based Bascom Group, which has been expanding in recent years with locations at a number of class A office buildings in Southern California.

An affiliate of the Ferrado Group called Ferrado Bayview LLC bought another Newport Beach office building last year, the 96,000-sf Birch Bayview Plaza at 20401 and 20411 Southwest Birch St. Ferrado paid nearly $36 million for the Birch Bayview purchase, according to a GlobeSt.com report at the time. In that deal, the international fund acquired a six-year-old office complex comprising two buildings of two stories each, built above first-floor covered parking, also close to the John Wayne Airport.