Land Deal Sets Stage for 124-Acre Business Park

OCEANSIDE, CA-North San Diego County remains one of the few places left in Southern California for a major development project, for now. One of the largest projects in Southern California on tap is in the Oceanside area, where 124 acres has been acquired by Pacific Coast Business Park LLC, a joint venture between La Jolla-based residential developer the Monarch Group and industrial firms, DWO Enterprises of Solana Beach and Costa Mesa-based Guthrie Development Co. The partnership acquired the raw land, formerly known as Rancho Del Oro II, for $28.2 million. The Monarch Group owns 50% of the property with Guthrie Development and DWO Enterprises sharing the remaining 50%, according to Shane Strickland principal, of Lee & Associates’ San Diego office. “The 124 acres is zoned industrial,” says Strickland. He tells Globest.com that the Monarch Group acquired the remaining 28 acres for $6.3 million and is mulling over various options on the land. The company will either sell the 28 acres or they might rezone it, according to Strickland. “They’re primarily a residential company,” he tells Globest.com. “So I don’t see them developing commercial projects on the site.”Originally, the Monarch Group wanted to rezone all the land to residential. But the company decided to keep it in its original zoning, according to Strickland. “That’s when industrial players DWO Enterprises and Guthrie Development were brought into the fold,” he adds.The former owner of the land, Oceanside International Properties LP, had owned the property for more than 10 years, according to Larry Strickland, founding principal of Lee & Associates’ San Diego office. They, too, had wanted the property as residential. “If you look back, industrial had not taken off yet when they began look to rezone the property,” says Larry Strickland. He adds that the city of Oceanside offered resistance because they were working to build up the employment base. “By the time Monarch went into escrow on the property, they found a growing industrial sector and the city of Oceanside wanting to keep the area zoned industrial,” Larry Strickland says.Once the industrial partners were brought on board, planning began on the land. Concerning the 124 acres owned by the partnership, plans are already underway for what will become a 1.5 million-sf R&D, straight industrial and office park named Pacific Coast Business Park. An early timelime was for groundbreaking to take place the first of this year, but that will now commence in April or May, according to Shane Strickland, with the first finished buildings being delivered during early 2006. The park will offer a range of industrial product, including for-sale building ranging in size from 3,000 sf to 50,000 sf. There will also be a for-lease multi-tenant park that will include incubator-style space of 1,500 sf. The park will include land sales to owner-users and build-to-suit properties. According to Strickland, the park will be subdivided into 30 parcels. Guthrie Development Co. will oversee the day-to-day operations of the development. This business park is located in Oceanside, immediately north of the Rancho Del Oro Technology Center and just east of the Ocean Ranch Corporate Center, the new home to major companies such as Biogen Idec, Ashworth, Coca Cola, Titleist, and One Source, according to Shane Strickland. “After this transaction, there is no more substantial amount of land available in North County,” he adds.Larry Strickland and Shane Strickland represented both buyers, Pacific Coast Business Park LLC and the Monarch Group. The seller was represented by Jim Spain, Gunder Creager, Josh McFadyen of Colliers International and Brian Strange of Burnham Real Estate. Brad Roppe of Stewart Title Co. handled the title and escrow services.