Crown Realty Changes Channels to Southeast Industrial

IRVINE, CA-A Southern California investment- and development-company that has historically focused on office and retail projects in its home territory and Phoenix has made an aggressive move into the Southeast industrial market. Crown Realty & Development Corp. has made two buys totaling more than $150 million and expects to close on a third shortly.

The Irvine-based company entered the arena at the end of 2007 with the $115 million purchase of a 13-building office, flex and industrial portfolio in Durham, NC’s Imperial Center Business Park. It followed quickly with the $36 million acquisition of two distribution properties in Memphis. Company CIO Scott San Filippo reports a distribution center in Charleston, SC is in contract for $28 million.

The escalating cost of California and Arizona office and retail properties prompted the shift, the Crown exec tells GlobeSt.com. Lower land and business costs, growing population and expansion at major East Coast ports drew the company to the Southeast, but the determination was made only after careful study.