Westcore Adds Industrial Property

MIRAMAR, CA-Westcore Properties LLC plans to acquire $500 million of real estate property in 2005. While it’s looking for major portfolio buys, the company’s also cherry picking the occasional stand-alone deal. In the past week, Westcore closed on two deals, one in the San Diego area and a second one in Milford, CT.In the San Diego deal, Westcore Distribution LLC, an affiliate of Westcore Properties, landed a 47,666-sf industrial building for $1.8 million. Westcore Properties represented itself while Bob Pounds of NAI Welsh represented the seller, New York-based Sunflower Properties Inc.Located on 2.2 acres, the property is 80% leased and Westcore is currently talking with a prospective tenant to fill the remaining space on the warehouse/distribution building. “We were attracted to the property because we could acquire it for well below replacement cost due to an environmental issue, but were able to hedge the risks posed by this condition,” says Gary Katz Westcore Properties’ director of acquisitions.It’s the second acquisition in the San Diego area this year for Westcore. In January, the company paid $12.8 million for a five-building, 102,200-sf office/R&D property. In that deal, a Westcore affiliate, Westcore Sandrock LLC partnered with Longwing Real Estate Ventures for the acquisition. That property is located on eight acres along the corner of Aero Drive and Sandrock Road in Kearny Mesa.After a record-setting year in 2004, which saw the company complete some $243 million in transactions, Westcore made the bold announcement last December that it planned to more than double that number in 2005, with a goal of $500 million in industrial, office and retail acquisitions. The company’s main targets are properties located in the California submarkets of San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles, the Inland Empire and the Bay Area as well as other western states. However, Westcore stepped outside its traditional target area with its acquisition of a 6.5-acre truck terminal property in Milford, CT. The company paid $3.9 million for the 24,600-sf terminal. Steve Shields of the San Diego office of Transportation Property Co. represented both parties in the deal. During escrow on the truck terminal, Westcore signed a 10-year lease valued at nearly $4.6 million with FedEx Freight, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp.