ORANGE COUNTY, CA—Most of the office inventoryin Orange County has not been reworked to address the needs oftoday's growing finance,insurance, real estate,technology and healthcarecompanies, Prudential Real Estate Investors'managing director Tim Hennessey tells GlobeSt.com.As we recently reported, PREI, in a joint venturewith McCarthy Cook & Co., has acquiredMetroCenter at South Coast, anoffice campus built on 15 acres with three 12-story office towersand a three-story health club. The joint venture intends torenovate MetroCenter by adding on-site amenities, including a plazarenovation with collaborative outdoor space and updated lobbies andcorridors and the addition of a conference center, tenant loungeand rooftop decks. We spoke exclusively with Hennessey about whathis firm likes about the Orange County office market and itsapproach to repositioning in this market.

GlobeSt.com: What attracts PREI to the Orange Countymarket?
Hennessey: We are attracted to the Orange Countymarket for a number of reasons. The region boasts a high quality oflife, an educated population and other diverse economic drivers. Inaddition, Orange County continues to be a high-barrier market whereentitlements to build are difficult to obtain. Forthe office sector in particular, our view is that Orange County isa late-recovery market where rent levels are still at a discount to2008 rent levels.

GlobeSt.com: What does your firm look for inproperties to acquire?
Hennessey: PREI has been very active in the OrangeCounty market over the course of the last year, withacquisitions in the office andretail sectors. Early in 2015, we acquired theBella Terra shopping center in HuntingtonBeach. Along with our joint-venture partner DJM CapitalPartners, we saw the opportunity to acquire adifficult-to-duplicate retail asset that was directly in the middleof thousands of new apartment units beingdeveloped. More recently, we acquired 1301 Dove St. in Newport Beach, which added toour portfolio a well-located, highly functional office building fora price that was a slight discount to today's replacement cost.Lastly, we acquired MetroCenter in Costa Mesa with our jointventure partner McCarthy Cook, representing anopportunity to transform one of the largest office campuses inOrange County into an amenity-rich environment where existing andprospective tenants will be able to enjoy state-of-the-artconference facilities, outdoor areas that encourage collaboration,a "food-truck alley," bocce-ball courts and reimagined lobbies thatwill have operable walls allowing access to outdoor areas.