Prologis Buys SoCal Office Campus for $96M

Pacific Vista. Image courtesy of Cushman & Wakefield

Prologis Inc., a name associated for decades with logistics real estate, has acquired Pacific Vista, a five-building, 322,262-square-foot, Class A office campus in Lake Forest, Calif., for $96 million. Cushman & Wakefield represented both parties in the off-market transaction.

The acquisition was described as a “long-term strategic play”; Prologis reportedly plans to continue operating the property as an office project.

The seller was not disclosed, but information provided to Commercial Property Executive by CommercialEdge indicates that the previous owner was Drawbridge Realty Trust.

READ ALSO: What to Expect From the Industrial Sector in 2022

The property’s five two-story office buildings cover 24 acres and are leased to seven long-term tenants. Completed in 2000, the buildings and are at 25500, 25510, 25520, 25530 and 25550 Commercentre Drive.

Cushman & Wakefield Executive Managing Director Jason Ward represented the buyer, and Cushman & Wakefield’s John Harty, with assistance from Jeffrey Cole, Nico Napolitano and Ed Hernandez, represented the seller.

“With its central location, Pacific Vista is a great addition to Prologis’ portfolio,” Ward said in a prepared statement.

Pacific Vista is situated in southern Orange County, convenient to major freeways including I-5, I405 and State Route 241.

Office into distribution

Interestingly, developers have been buying up underutilized office space in Orange County with the intent to redevelop it for distribution/logistics purposes, according to a fourth-quarter report from Kidder Mathews. In the quarter’s largest deal, Amazon purchased 275 Valencia in Brea, Calif., for $165 million with that plan in mind. Further, Rexford Industrial bought two office campuses for a total of $175 million for the same purpose.

Orange County’s office market saw some signs of recovery in late 2021, with more than 2.1 million square feet of leasing activity in the fourth quarter, Kidder Mathews reported.

Class A space in the South Orange County submarket has a 16.5 percent total availability, on an inventory of 10.6 million square feet. Direct net absorption in 2021 was a negative 226,000 square feet, also according to Kidder Mathews.