Newport Beach-based MIG Real Estate LLC this month paid $33.3 million for the Mission Viejo Business Center, the second local purchase of the year for the real estate investment spinoff of Merage Family Offices.
Mission Viejo Business Center is a six-building industrial site located on 7.7 acres and 100,295 square feet located between 23811 and 23891 Via Fabricante. The transaction amount was approximately $329 per square foot.
The property, located approximately 1 mile north of the Santa Ana (5) Freeway near Alicia Parkway and Geronimo Road, is 99% leased to 43 tenants including O’Reilly Auto Enterprises, Goodwill Industries of OC and State Farm Insurance. It has been. Point of sale.
The seller, the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association, is represented by Jeff Ciate, Bryce Aberg, Jeff Cole, Rick Ellison, Mike Addy, and Zach Herman of Cushman & Wakefield. It was Mr.
The agency purchased the industrial park in 1991 for approximately $6.6 million.
“A number of buyers were pursuing the Mission Viejo Business Center,” Cushman & Wakefield executive chairman Chiate told the Business Journal. “Mission Viejo is one of the only areas in Orange County where this type of product exists.”
buyer background
The Mission Viejo Business Center includes several features to accommodate mid-sized industrial tenants, including 10 to 16 feet of ground clearance, grade and dock height loading doors, and concrete truck courts.
MIG plans to continue operating the park as is, with no plans for renovations.
The company reported its first OC investment this year in June, when it paid $61.1 million for Newport Palms, a 138-unit complex at 1850 Whittier Avenue in Westside Costa Mesa. The transaction was valued at approximately $442,000 per unit.
At the time of the sale, it was the city’s largest multifamily investment in more than a year, according to brokerage data.
MIG Real Estate is led by Greg Merage, nephew of UC Irvine benefactor Paul Merage.
Paul Merage co-founded the frozen food company Chef America with his brother David, which they sold to Nestlé in 2002 for $2.6 billion.
After the sale, he also founded MIG Capital. MIG Capital has approximately $2 billion in assets and is run by his son, Richard Merage.
Multi-tenant park boom
Brokers involved in the transaction say demand for properties like the Mission Viejo Business Center is increasing while interest in Class A industrial products is declining.
“It’s counterintuitive to what we normally see,” Chiate says. “Typically, when you see a softening in the market, it starts with these mixed-use buildings and works its way up to Class A.”
The deviation from typical trends can be attributed to lower inventory and higher lease rates, with Class A real estate rising faster than industrial parks, Chiate noted.
The number of multi-tenant parks around OC remains limited as they have been demolished to make way for warehouses and life sciences space. Chiate said the county hasn’t built a new multifamily park in more than 20 years.
Today’s high construction costs further inhibit developers from creating more coveted products.
“That’s why the buyer base for these parks was so strong,” Chiate said. “There are several parks in escrow in the state right now.”