OC Office Tower Trades for $120M

By Keith Loria

2600 Michelson

CB Global Investors has acquired 2600 Michelson, a 311,000-square-foot office tower in Irvine, Calif., from Ocean West Capital Partners. The asset traded for $120 million.

The building is situated on nearly 4.6 acres in the Greater Airport Area submarket of Orange County, just minutes away from Houston’s Restaurant, Mother’s Market, LA Fitness and Central Park West, a new mixed-use urban village and retail center that boasts more than 30 micro-restaurants, bars and stores.

The 16-story trophy office building was 99 percent occupied at the time of the sale. Its tenant roster includes Loan Depot, Jacobs Engineering, Zillow and Premier Business Centers. Originally constructed in 1986, the property was renovated last year and now includes a polished granite and glass exterior, a two-story lobby that overlooks a koi pond and courtyard, and a five-story adjacent parking structure.

The NKF Capital Markets team of Kevin Shannon, president; West Coast, Paul Jones, senior managing director; Ken White, executive managing director; Brunson Howard, senior managing director; and Blake Bokosky, director, represented the seller in the transaction. The buyer was self-represented.

“2600 Michelson was a very rare opportunity to purchase an iconic Class A office tower in the center of the John Wayne Airport submarket in Irvine,” Jones said in a prepared release. “The visibility from the 405 Freeway and the 360 degree unobstructed views, in addition to the tremendous upgrades and improvements from the seller, make the property a great long-term hold for new ownership at a discount to replacement cost.”

A Growing Office Area

In its most recent Orange County Office Market Report in October, CBRE reported that asking lease rate growth increased 2.5% quarter-over-quarter and 9.7% year-over-year. According to a Yardi Matrix report, Orange County gave its best performance in 2017. By the end of the year, the metro reached its lowest vacancy rate since the recession.

In the past eight years, Ocean West has acquired and operated office and multifamily residential investments valued at more than $1 billion and completed more than $3 billion of commercial real estate transactions.

Ocean West Capital Partners acquired 8942 Wilshire Blvd., known as the Wilshire La Peer Building, in Beverly Hills two years ago and renovated the building for lease. 

Photo courtesy of NKF