Bixby Closes $56M Sale of Orange County Building

By Ariela Moraru

Habitat, Irvine, Calif.

Bixby Land Co. completed the sale of Habitat, a 262,463-square-foot Class A office building in Irvine, Calif., for $56.3 million. Karma Automotive LLC bought the property it previously leased in August 2016. Gregg Haly and Jeff Carr of CBRE represented Bixby in the transaction, while Kevin Leonard of Healthwest Realty Advisors represented Karma Automotive.

Bixby acquired the asset for $44.3 million from Kawasaki in 2015 with plans to reposition it into a dynamic workplace that would appeal to larger companies. The new owner is planning to redesign its new headquarters to include further employee amenities and a branded experience center for its new Revero luxury sedan. Located at 9950 Jeronimo Road, the two-story 1985 property has easy access to I-405 and I-5 and is close to Irvine Metrolink and Irvine Spectrum Center.

Habitat, Irvine, Calif.

“The Orange County labor market is for all purposes at full employment and the competition to hire and retain top talent is an issue we hear repeatedly from tenants,” said Aaron Hill, executive vice president & COO at Bixby, in prepared remarks.

The sale completes Bixby’s investment strategy for the project, which also included the sale of an adjacent 4.7-acre vacant land parcel to Chapman University for the ongoing expansion of its Irvine campus. The company also recently sold AERO, a redesigned four-story, multi-tenant office project in San Diego to AVID Center, the largest tenant in the building. Bixby is also working on the repositioning of a 185,000-square-foot office campus in Portland, Ore., where the company will debut its brand of creative work environments later this year.

Images courtesy of Bixby Land Co.