Ventura County’s commercial real estate market ran up some impressive numbers in the final quarter of 2005.
The highlights included one of the steepest prices ever paid for raw land $17.85 per square foot in the county, the sale of one of the largest undeveloped parcels in the area 27 acres and the county’s tallest office building hitting the 100 percent-leased mark (the 21-story Morgan Stanley Building in Oxnard).
Office vacancies countywide came in at 8 percent for the fourth quarter, down from 9 percent in the third quarter, and better than the 8.6 percent from the year-ago quarter, according to data compiled by the Ventura office of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.
“The market is on fire in Ventura County,” said Michael Slater, senior vice president at CB Richard Ellis. “And it’s even stronger in the Conejo Valley.” (Part of Conejo Valley is in Los Angeles County.)
The $2.3 million that Howard California Properties anted up for 2.9 acres in the Camarillo Ranch Business Center was one of the highest prices paid for a raw parcel in the county. John DeGrinis, senior vice president with real estate firm Colliers Seeley International, represented the buyer, which plans a 48,526 square-foot industrial building on the site.
“The overriding theme here is the lack of available land,” DeGrinis said. “That’s nothing new. But we’re seeing a dramatic increase in land values as a result of the bullish nature of this industrial and commercial real estate market.”
Banner deals
In Westlake Village, Steadfast Business Properties purchased 27 acres of vacant but not raw land along the freeway in Lakeview for a reported $27 million. Lee & Associates represented Steadfast and its joint venture partners, Amstar Group, while GVA Daum represented the seller, Canyon Mesa Inc.
Steadfast plans to develop a 482,215-square-foot office complex set in a campus of eight buildings and is expected to break ground in the spring. GVA Daum will handle leasing the property.
Other notable deals include the $52 million sale of Warner Marketplace, a 160,075-square-foot open-air shopping center adjacent to the Westfield Shoppingtown Promenade and Westfield Shoppingtown Topanga. Global financial services firm UBS Realty Investors bought the shopping center, which is already fully leased with retailers such as Bed, Bath & Beyond Inc., Borders Inc., and Pier 1 Imports. Real estate firm Colliers Seeley International represented both the buyer and the seller, Bisno Development Co.
In Thousand Oaks, Sares Regis Group paid $34 million for an 18-acre parcel from Hileman Company LLC. The 136,000-square-foot project on West Hillcrest Drive will be called the Arbors, and is scheduled to break ground this quarter.
In Simi Valley, L.A.-based investment firm Century Park Partners bought the 180,000-square-foot Countrywide Home Loans Inc. building for $33 million. The Tapo Canyon Road property includes an undeveloped 3-acre parcel. Countrywide has a 10-year lease on the building, formerly owned by Schmid-Moulton Parkway, a unit of Anaheim-based Schmid Development trust.
Other groundbreakings include Chase Partners starting construction on a 40,000-square-foot office building at the Camarillo Business Center, which had been pre-leased by Stewart Title of California Co. and CB Richard Ellis.
Kinko’s, bought in 2004 by FedEx Corp., finally finished vacating more than 100,000 square feet in Ventura and Oxnard, which was quickly reabsorbed into the market. The County’s net absorption rate the amount of leased office space that came on the market and was occupied was 163,818 square feet for the quarter.
The tallest building in the county, the 21-story, 300,000 square-foot Morgan Stanley Tower in Oxnard, served as a beacon for the area’s lease market, according to Bill Kiefer, executive vice president of real estate firm NAI Capital. Run by Topa Management Co., it reached 100 percent occupancy. “When something that big hits 100 percent, that’s kind of a rare occasion,” Kiefer said. “What you’re finding is the bulk of the market in the better buildings is probably at an actual vacancy rate of less than 5 percent.”
Conejo Valley served as sandbox for some of the bigger deals last quarter. Farmers Insurance Group paid Teradyne Inc. $18 million for a 120,000-square-foot office building in Agoura, or about $150 per square foot.
Guitar Center Inc., capitalizing on a successful run of acquiring smaller retailers, expanded its Westlake headquarters in a $12.2 million purchase handled by CB Richard Ellis. The two buildings, sold by John and Denise Gooden, add 96,000 square feet to the company’s headquarters on Lindero Canyon Road.
Smaller deals include the Lockheed Federal Credit Union’s purchase of an acre in Thousand Oaks for $1.3 million. The credit union plans to build a new branch on the property, which is at Broadback and Wendy drives. Commercial real estate investor Earle Properties paid more than $2.2 million for a 25,000-square-foot building in Camarillo on Via Alondra, bought from JTI Partners. CB Richard Ellis handled both deals.
