Sares-Regis Starts 255,000-SF Development

[IMGCAP(1)]IRVINE, CA-Locally based developer Sares-Regis Group has broken ground on the 254,500-square-foot, six-building first phase of its new Cabrillo Business Park in Goleta. The 14-acre first phase of the 96-acre project will include 175,000 square feet of office, 72,000 square feet of self-storage and 17,500 square feet of retail space. The development site is at Hollister Avenue and Los Carneros Road, adjacent to the Santa Barbara Municipal Airport.

[IMGCAP(2)]According to Steve Fedde, senior vice president for the Ventura Region of Sares-Regis Group, demand for commercial facilities “is greater in this market than anywhere in California because virtually nothing has been built here in the last 10 years.”Says Fedde, “We fully expect the buildings to be leased up or sold in short order.” The project is being marketed by Mark Mattingly and Greg Bartholomew of the Santa Barbara office of Pacifica Commercial Realty.

Mattingly says that the vacancy rate for class A office space is approximately 3% of a total inventory of 1.5 million square feet of premium office and R&D space. The nearby University of California at Santa Barbara in Goleta generates a steady stream of new technological and scientific companies in the area that creates much of the high demand for commercial facilities, he says.

The Goleta City Council approved the Cabrillo Business Park in 2007. It is the largest commercial development ever proposed on the South Coast. The plan calls for development of 956,000 square feet of research-and-development facilities in 12 one- and two-story flex buildings of up to 80,000 square feet.

Some 46% of the site will remain as natural or landscaped open space. It will include 19 acres of restored and expanded wetlands and grasslands with publicly accessible trails. Engineering for the project is being completed by Penfield & Smith of Santa Barbara.