CBRE Global Investors Buys Orange County Facility for $181M

Irvine Crossing. Image courtesy of CBRE

CBRE Global Investors has acquired Irvine Crossing, a mixed-use facility in Irvine, Calif., through one of its sponsored funds. According to public records filed in June, the property sold for $180.8 million. The seller was an affiliate of Menlo Equities, which has owned the asset since 2011, CommercialEdge data shows.

Irvine Crossing traded for roughly $456 per square foot, making it one of the most expensive assets sold in Orange County since the beginning of the year. The transaction exceeded the average $271 price per square foot recorded in the market as of May, the latest industrial CommercialEdge report shows.

Irvine Crossing’s value increased by roughly 284 percent, as it previously changed hands for $47 million in 2011 when Menlo Equities purchased it from Voit Real Estate Services.

The 393,673-square-foot facility comprises a powered shell data center operated by Cyxtera—which recently expanded in Santa Clara—and a last-mile delivery warehouse occupied by Amazon.

Property characteristics

The warehouse component totals 202,500 square feet and offers seven grade-level and 22 truck well doors, 22-foot clear height, skylights, ESFR sprinklers and HVAC climate control. The logistics building also features a parking ratio of 1.2 spaces per 1,000 square feet and includes an office component.

Cyxtera’s LAX3 data center is a carrier-neutral, Tier III-certified facility totaling 193,173 square feet, of which 115,000 square feet is raised floor space. The data center has 10 MW of critical power available, with UPS configurations available at N+1 for disaster recovery or 2N redundancy. The Energy Star-certified asset also features cooling redundancy of N+1 and offers connectivity to 16 unique network service providers.

Irvine Crossing entrance. Photo courtesy of CBRE

Irvine Crossing is situated on 21.6 acres within the Irvine Busines Complex, at 17871 Von Karman Ave. and 17836 Gillette Ave. The area is home to multiple other data center operators, fulfillment centers—including three other Amazon facilities—and provides immediate access to the Interstate 405/California State Route 55 interchange and John Wayne Airport.

Unstoppable demand

Demand for industrial space in Southern California continues to soar, as markets in the region reached some of the lowest vacancies in the nation, according to the same CommercialEdge report. As of May, Orange County’s industrial vacancy stood at 3.7 percent. Inland Empire’s vacancy at 2 percent remained the lowest in the country, while Los Angeles had a vacancy of 3.9 percent. Rental rates for industrial properties increased by 5.2 percent year-over-year in Orange County, as e-commerce coupled with record activity at the Port of Los Angeles is expected to continue to drive activity in the region.

Demand for data center space in Southern California also increased by the end of 2020, according to a recent North American data center report from CBRE. Secondary data center markets are slated to see increased activity this year, as hyperscale demand slowed down during the height of the pandemic, resulting in significant preleasing activity in the second half of last year, the report shows.