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The Conejo Valley office market is bustling, thanks to well-heeled start-ups that have been moving to the “Technology Corridor” as well as institutional-quality tenants that need substantial space.
“We’re getting a little bit of everybody now,” said Tony Principe with Westlake Village-based Westcord Commercial Real Estate Services. “A lot of it is the development of upper-end residential. There’s such a nice quality of life. People are tired of making the drive, so they move their companies out.”
Rents, land values and construction are growing commensurately.
In Westlake Village, where the vacancy rate is in the single digits and there’s limited land, office rents have risen from $1.50 a square foot five years ago to more than $2 today.
Conejo Valley land values hit a high-water mark with the recent sale of the Westlake Plaza III site south of the Ventura (101) Freeway. Plaza Center III LLC, two investors who developed and own more than 200,000 square feet of office space in the Conejo Valley, paid $4.3 million, or more than $53 per buildable square foot.
That beats the nearest comparable sale, which was about $40 per square foot, said Mike Foxworthy of Daum Commercial Real Estate Services, who represented seller Richland Communities of Santa Ana.
“It is a high price for the market, but on the other hand, it’s considered the premier location in the entire market,” said Principe, who represented the buyers and is marketing the property. “We’ve had a lot of pre-leasing activity already.”
Foxworthy said the buyers, who competed with two other full-priced offers, were convinced to pursue the site after NetZero leased the 50,000-square-foot Westlake Gardens, phase 2, a nearby project completed earlier this year.
The 4.5-acre parcel (which includes parking) is fully entitled for a three-story, 81,500-square-foot, class-A office building. It’s the last remaining office building site in a master-planned development that Thousand Oaks approved in the early 1980s, which also has a Hyatt hotel and two fully occupied office buildings.
The new owners plan to add a $16 million building that is expected to command rents of around $2.50 per square foot.
Investment Development Services Inc also recently began construction on the campus-like, $50 million Westlake North Business Park, which will consist of three class-A office buildings totaling 327,474 square feet.
They’ve been designed with an eye toward attracting tech-oriented companies with large floor plates, fiber optics and back-up generators.
“The timing is right to be able to accommodate larger technology companies in the Conejo Valley that are cramped and need more room,” said IDS principal David Seata.
Job hop
Forrest Blake has joined Cresa Partners in a move from Travers Realty Corp./Oncor International.
Blake said the move reflects the direction he has been going in tenant representation working with entertainment, technology and new-media companies, which is a strong suit of Cresa’s. He completed 1.14 million square feet of such transactions in the first half of 1999.
“A lot of my new clients are in the technology sector,” said Blake, who has been in commercial real estate for 10 years. His clients have included Frontier Communications, Warner Bros., Equilon, Future Electronics and Grey Advertising.
West Hollywood development
West L.A.-based Champion Development Group may build a small retail project in West Hollywood.
The city has entered into exclusive negotiations with Champion to develop a city-owned site at the northwest corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Hancock Avenue. Champion is proposing a 40,000-square-foot building fronting Santa Monica with retail and a restaurant, and a parking structure in the rear.
The city had received nine proposals for the site, where it wants pedestrian-oriented uses scaled to the surrounding neighborhood. Champion and Rich Development Corp. were the finalists.
The city went with Champion because of its greater experience with urban development and higher offer for the property between $55 and $95 per square foot, depending on what is charged for parking.
Champion also developed One Westside Place at Olympic and Sawtelle boulevards, the Brentwood Place shopping center and a Ross Dress for Less on South Lake Avenue in Pasadena.
Apartment deal
For the first time since it was built 38 years ago, the Villa Venetia apartment complex in Marina del Rey has changed hands.
Jackbilt Inc. sold the four-building complex for about $25 million to Elkor Realty Corp., which owns about 12,000 units in California, Chicago and Florida.
Like other Marina properties, the apartments are on a ground lease with L.A. County. In fact, Villa Venetia had the first ground lease in the marina when it was built, said Andrew Levant of George Smith Partners, who represented Elkor.
The 224-unit complex, which is at 13900 Fiji Way, was developed by the late Jack Howard and sold by his family. Elkor is working on a lease extension and would like to redevelop the property, both with renovated and new buildings.
“The location is probably second to none in L.A. in terms of ocean, harbor and city-lights views,” said Elkor principal Greg Schem.
News & notes
Symantec Corp. has renewed its 107,695-square-foot lease at MGM Plaza in Santa Monica. MaguirePartners, the owner, was represented in-house by Tony Morales, and Symantec by Steve Cramer of the Seeley Co.
Staff reporter Elizabeth Hayes can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 229, or at [email protected].
