Inland Empire

Lee & Associates has negotiated a 10-year, $20.5 million lease of the Midway Distribution Center, a 611,968-square-foot industrial property at 11101 Etiwanda Ave., in Fontana, CA. Jeff Smith, principal and senior vice president at Lee & Associates’ Ontario office, represented the tenant, Allied West Paper Corp. “Although the overall lease economics certainly guided the direction of our building negotiations, the new building in Fontana allowed us to hit all of our primary project targets for Allied including their ability to stage growth into 600,000 square feet and do so in proximity to their existing operations,” Smith says. Allied West Paper, which is currently located at 11591 Etiwanda Ave. in Fontana, plans to phase in to its new industrial space beginning Dec. 15. In addition, Allied West has plans to add 100,000 square feet of manufacturing space and 15,000 square feet of office space. The four-year old building will be used as Allied’s corporate headquarters. Jeff Huberman, senior vice president of Lee & Associates’ City of Industry office, partnered with Smith in the transaction.

Orange County

Newport Beach, CA-based Voit Real Estate Services has directed six transactions in Southern California for a total consideration of $12.18 million. Tomasa Flores Separate Property Trust has sold a 55,459-square-foot industrial property for $4.2 million. LB/VCC has sold a 27,400-square-foot office property for $2.75 million. Gonsalves Properties LLC has completed a 67,571-square-foot industrial property lease transaction for $1.68 million. Al Saguero has purchased a 2,800 square-foot multi-family property for $1.3 million. John Francis Fischer Trust has sold a 6,992 square-foot industrial property for $1.15 million. Casper Reed Trust has purchased a 3,000-square-foot industrial building on 1.47 acres of property for $1.1 million.

Denver

Real estate investment firm and lender PCCP LLC of El Segundo, CA has formed a joint venture with San Francisco-based Jackson Square Properties, a privately held company that specializes in value-added apartments across the US, to acquire two lender-owned apartment properties in the Denver area. The two class B properties, totaling 1,114 units, suffered from deteriorating cash flow while in receivership despite an improving Denver apartment market. The portfolio consists of the 688-unit Hickory Ridge Apartments at 2134 S Richfield Way in Aurora and the 426-unit Lakes at Monaco Pointe Apartments at 6165 E. Iliff Ave. in Denver. Built in 1975, Lakes at Monaco Pointe includes five, three- and five-story buildings with one- and two-bedroom configurations. Amenities include a clubhouse/leasing office building with a fitness room, community room, swimming pool, business center, tennis courts and large open courtyard area that provides a park-like setting. Built in 1985, Hickory Ridge includes 34 two-story buildings in one-, two-, and three-bedroom configurations. Amenities include a clubhouse/leasing office building with a fitness room, three swimming pools, business center, hardwood floors and walk-in closets. Rob Cohen, senior vice president with PCCP, says that, “Denver’s promising employment and population forecasts, combined with a limited supply of new development, should allow for increases in collections over the next few years.” The new owners say that their capacity to invest capital in the properties to eliminate deferred maintenance and turn vacant units will result in higher occupancies than under the previous ownership.

Grosvenor Investment Management US Inc. has signed a lease expansion totalling 52,803 square feet for Continental Casualty Co. in the 192,359-square-foot ParkRidge Four office building just south of Denver. GIM acquired the building on behalf of an open-ended commingled fund in 2006. Richard Egitto of Crimson Services represented the ownership in the transaction. Bill Maher of the Charles Rowan Group of Denver and the John Buck Co. of Chicago represented the tenant. CNA, which currently occupies about 23,000 square feet of space in the building, will more than double its space when the new lease term starts in April 2011. Other tenants in the building include Merrill Lynch, Hewlett Packard, UBS, the US General Services Administration, and Keller Williams Real Estate. ParkRidge Four, located at 10375 Park Meadows Dr. in Littleton, CO is a class A multi-tenant office building in the southeast suburban Denver office market. It is 95% leased to an institutional-quality tenant roster. The building, constructed in 2001, is prominently situated on the west side of Interstate 25 and is convenient to the Lincoln light rail station.

Las Vegas

Marnell Properties has appointed Colliers International as its exclusive leasing agent as it moves forward with its plans for the Marnell Airport Center and Marnell Air Cargo Center. Colliers will be responsible for enhancing the presence and exposure for both flagship projects adjacent to McCarran International Airport. “The Colliers International team understands our portfolio and is best equipped to handle a project of this size and caliber,” says David Simard, senior vice president of Marnell Properties. “We’re confident the new leasing team will actively and aggressively pursue prospective tenants.” Suzette La Grange, senior vice president at Colliers International will lead the leasing efforts. La Grange says the two projects’ attributes provide a great foundation for attracting new tenants. Nearly 81,000 square feet has been constructed and leased in the Marnell Airport Center. The master planned airport development sits on approximately 14 acres adjacent to McCarran International Airport. The first of three 81,000 square foot three-story office buildings is complete. The Center will also have a 10,000 square foot single-story office building. All buildings offer build-to-suit potential for tenants who require unique building features. In addition to the Marnell Airport Center, Colliers will also handle leasing of the Marnell Air Cargo Center, which is slated for completion in October 2010, and will be home to on-tarmac air cargo operations for notable tenants such as FedEx and Southwest Airlines among others. The project features two buildings totaling more than 200,000 square feet.

Seattle

George F. Russell Jr. Hall, a newly constructed four-story office building in the heart of the University District recently signed Carbon Design Group to an 11,148-square-foot lease, bringing the office portion of the building to 100% occupancy. The CB Richard Ellis leasing team of Owen Rice and Brandon Weber signed leases totaling 25,262 square feet in the last six months, filling the 40,000-square-foot office building with a variety of business including the University of Washington, Wesley Foundation and the National Bureau of Asian Research. “The building’s class A quality and prominent location next to the University of Washington campus made it an ideal fit for the tenants,” Rice says. Retail tenants at street level are MOD Pizza and Neo Caf