FDIC Sells 332,000-SF Complex for $53M

NEWPORT BEACH, CA-S.K. Hart Properties of Utah has acquired the 332,000-square-foot Bayview Corporate Center office complex, the former headquarters of failed Downey Savings & Loan, from the FDIC for $53 million in an all-cash purchase. According to Hart, the transaction is the largest single-property deal in the country to be managed by the FDIC thus far.

Hart acquired the Bayview property, which consists of two six-story towers connected by a three-story atrium and a five-level parking structure, in a transaction brokered by Cushman &Wakefield, which had the exclusive listing for the project. The Cushman & Wakefield team included executive managing director Marc Renard and Manfred Schaub in the company’s Downtown Los Angeles office, along with Jeff Cole of the firm’s Orange County office in Irvine.

Buyer S.K. Hart properties is an affiliate of Salt Lake City-based S.K. Hart Management, a private investment management company with significant real estate holdings in Southern California and Utah and with interests in a diversified portfolio including companies engaged in energy, agriculture and various other activities, according to the company’s web site. Hart says in a news release that it will be offering “highly competitive lease packages” at the Bayview complex, which is 23% occupied.

The Bayview complex is at 3501 Jamboree Rd., at the intersection of Jamboree Road and the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor (State Route 73). The sale of the class A complex, which generated multiple offers from a host of prospective buyers, is the latest in a series of office building sales in Orange County this year.

The all-cash acquisition illustrates something that industry experts have been saying for some time about the investment market: that plenty of capital is available for the right deals. Local observers have been saying, too, that the sales and the prices paid reflect optimism about the long-term future of the Orange County office market, which was one of the first and hardest-hit in the economic downturn.