Voit Facilitates $19M San Diego Flex/Office Sale

By Mihaela Coste

Aero Office Building – 8825 Aero Drive, San Diego

Voit Real Estate Services completed the $18.5 million sale of two flex/office properties totaling 140,470 square feet. The buildings are located on a 7.6-acre site in the Kearny Mesa submarket of San Diego. The company represented both parties in the transaction.

Brandon Keith, Randy LaChance and Jon Boland of Voit Real Estate Services’ San Diego office represented the seller, 8825 & 8875 Aero Drive Holdings LLC, while Kipp Gstettenbauer and Ryan King of Voit’s San Diego Exclusive Private Client Group represented the buyer, Protea Aero Drive LLC.

Located at 8875 Aero Drive, AeroValut is a 103,470-square-foot industrial building originally constructed for Bank of America: “The property was constructed for Bank of America in the early 1980’s as their primary Southern California money vault, which purported to hold up to $1 billion in cash and coin at peak operation.  Based on this specialized use, the building has no first floor windows, and features heavy concrete security elements throughout the ground floor,” said Keith in a prepared statement.

The second building included in the transaction is the three-story Aero Office Building. Located at 8825 Aero Drive, the asset features 37,000 square feet of multi-tenant office space.

AeroValut was vacant for nearly eight years. Both assets included in the sale underwent court ordered receivership, followed by foreclosure, and finally asset management by special servicer LNR Partners.

Improvement plans

Rendering of AeroVault – 8875 Aero Drive, San Diego

The new owner plans a renovation and repositioning of the AeroVault into a premier creative tech/corporate office facility in Kearny Mesa. Ware Malcomb has been retained as the project’s architect.

“Protea’s vision is to create a state-of-the-art creative office environment like no other in this submarket,” said Gstettenbauer in a prepared remark.  “Leveraging the building’s excellent 4.75/1,000 parking ratio, 15-foot high concrete ceilings, and outside open spaces, the buyer will redesign the building inside and out in order to offer unmatched lifestyle amenities and maximize flexibility for a wide range of office, medical and technology tenants.”

Going forward, Kipp Gstettenbauer, Ryan King and Brandon Keith of Voit’s San Diego office will handle marketing efforts and the repositioning campaign for both assets. 

Earlier this month, Voit facilitated the sale of two multi-tenant industrial buildings in Chula Vista, Calif. The 170,805-square-foot complex traded for $13.5 million.

Images courtesy of Voit Real Estate Services