The long anticipated sale of the Mann Biomedical Park in Valencia has finally closed.
The 120-acre park owned by billionaire Alfred Mann was sold to Intertex Cos. in Valencia with financial backing from L.A. investment firm Oaktree Capital Management LP
In addition, the joint venture purchased the nearly 10-acre Sylmar Biomedical Park, which houses other Mann-affiliated companies.
“Rarely does an opportunity become available to buy such high-quality, unique real estate of this size in the Santa Clarita Valley,” said Intertex President Dale Donohoe, in a statement.
Market sources have pegged the Santa Clarita deal, first reported by the Business Journal in September, at about $100 million. Intertex did not release financial details on either acquisition.
Tenants at the 600,000-square-foot Santa Clarita park include the Alfred Mann Foundation and Bioness Inc., which makes medical devices for people with multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury and cerebral palsy. The park was formerly the headquarters of Advanced Bionics AG, a maker of cochlear hearing implants that Mann founded in 1993 and later sold.
Tenants at the 180,000-square-foot Sylmar park include Mann’s Second Sight Medical Products Inc. and advanced battery maker Quallion LLC, which he sold last year.
Santa Clarita City Manager Ken Striplin said he’s excited about what the sale could bring to Santa Clarita. He noted that Intertex President Dale Donohoe has a long history in the area.
“Dale Donohoe has built several excellent projects in Santa Clarita including the Bridgeport Marketplace, and we look forward to his future plans for the Mann Biomedical park to bring new businesses and new jobs to our community,” he said in an email.
The 16-buiding office and industrial park off the 5 Freeway is more than just an investment play for Intertex. The park is entitled for nearly 900,000 square feet of additional building development that can include office/flex and industrial/flex.
Mann purchased the park in 2002 from Legacy Partners of Foster City. Prior to that, it was owned by aerospace and defense giant Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Md., which operated its advanced development Skunk Works program there.
Biotech industry insiders have said Mann could be selling off his real estate to raise capital to reinvest into his companies, which would make the timing impeccable; the deal closed the day before one of Mann’s companies at his Sylmar park went public.
Second Sight had a smash debut on the Nasdaq Wednesday in its first day of trading, with the stock more than doubling. Mann has a roughly 33 percent stake in the company, now worth about $195 million.
Mann was represented in the two sales by Kevin Shannon, Craig Peters, Ken White, Doug Sonderegger and Laura Stumm of CBRE. Bank of America provided debt financing, which was procured by CBRE’s Val Achtemeier.
