SAN DIEGO COUNTY

Loja Real Estate LLC acquired the 38,828-square-foot Shops at Pacific Station in Encinitas from Pacific Station Property LLC for $19.5 million on behalf of one of Lola's separate accounts, according to Lola CEO Tom Engberg. The Shops at Pacific Station is a 96%-leased, Silver LEED-certified grocery-anchored neighborhood shopping center that is the retail portion of a 98,403-square-foot vertical mixed-use center containing second and third-story office space totaling 9,733 square feet, and 47 residential condominium units. Loja Group was represented by SVP Richard Lebert of Colliers International. Pacific Station Property LLC was represented by senior managing director Ryan Gallagher of HFF. Scott Kyman, VP of acquisitions for Loja, says that the Shops at Pacific Station is anticipated to be the premier neighborhood grocery-anchored shopping center within the Downtown 101 corridor, a 100+ year-old coastal shopping district considered one of San Diego's most desirable retail destinations. Engberg added that, "Once development returns to the market, we anticipate a trend toward mixed-use projects in dense built-out suburban communities where land is scarce and planners want development aggregated around transit hubs. He noted that Pacific Station is situated next to the Encinitas train station, which is on a rail line that extends from San Diego into Los Angeles County, which represents "the direction of future development and investor interest." Loja Group has retained Capital Growth Properties Inc. of La Jolla, CA, to manage the property.

Unum, a Fortune 500 insurance company headquartered in Chattanooga, TN, has signed a 7.5-year lease for 10,252 square feet of office space at Sunroad Corporate Centre at 4445 Eastgate Mall in San Diego. The deal for the 10,252-square-foot space in San Diego’s Golden Triangle was brokered by Transwestern’s Jonathan Larsen. Assisting in the deal was Transwestern’s Scott Becker. Sunroad was represented by Robert Zolezzi of Cypress & Forbes Asset Management Co.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

The Meadows

Beech Street Capital LLC announced provided an $8.8 million Fannie Mae conventional loan for the refinance of the 212-space manufactured home community called the Meadows in the City of Chico. The fixed-rate loan has a term of seven years, 6.5 years of yield maintenance and a 25-year amortization schedule payable on an actual/360 basis. The loan closed within 50 days of application, according to originator Damon Reed of Beech Street's Birmingham, AL office. Timing was vital to the borrower, a retired investment banker, in order to pay off a maturing loan, Reed says. Constructed in 1980, the Meadows includes a clubhouse, a 30-space RV storage area, a pool, a spa, a playground, a basketball court and a billiards room. Approximately 92% of the homes are multi-sectional and each mobile home space has a driveway and a carport, except for several that have garages.

ORANGE COUNTY

The owner of a 60-unit apartment complex in Santa Ana has secured more than $7.1 million in new financing arranged by Michael Derk, senior director and vice president of capital markets at Marcus & Millichap Capital Corp. The loan is fixed for five years at 4.65% with a small sliding prepay. The amortization is 30 years and the loan-to-value is 77%. “We obtained high-leverage financing for our client through our relationship with the lender, supported by in-depth due diligence on the property and timely market data,” continues Derk, who noted that the transaction closed within 48 days from start to finish. Occupancy had stabilized over the past three months at the building, which had a fair amount of deferred maintenance, with rental concessions burning off, he added.

Incipio, a manufacturer and distributor of mobile device accessories, has signed a seven-year lease for 110,399 square feet of R&D/manufacturing space in the Oak Canyon Business Center at 6001 Oak Canyon in Irvine. The space will be the new headquarters for Incipio, which was represented by SVP Wade Tift and associate Byron Foss of Grubb & Ellis Co. Tift reports that Incipio expects to occupy the new space, in which it will consolidate two other locations, in the first quarter of 2012 after tenant improvements are complete. The building owner, the Irvine Co., was represented internally by leasing director Sue Lyle. Andy Fathollahi, president and founder of Incipio, says the company needs the new space because of its "tremendous growth."

Isotis Orthobiologics, which develops synthetic bone grafts and related products, signed a five-year, 43,538 square-foot industrial lease renewal with building owner KTR Capital Partners at 2 Goodyear in Irvine for a total consideration of $2.4 million. KTR was represented by Trent Walker and Sam Olmstead of Voit Real Estate Services’ Irvine office. The tenant, represented by CB Richard Ellis, occupies roughly 60% of the two-tenant, approximately 70,000-square-foot building at 2 Goodyear.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Commercial real estate investment banking firm George Smith Partners closed four multifamily transactions in Los Angeles totaling $13.4 million that illustrate the steady increase in the volume of commercial real estate loan activity in 2011, according to Steve Bram, principal and managing director of GSP. One was a $5.3 million financing for a newly constructed, mixed-use apartment and retail property that was originally constructed as for-sale condos and then converted to rental units. Upon completion of the building’s construction, the FDIC seized the construction lender and transferred the note to a new bank. “The new lender extended the balloon date with a short-term mini-permanent loan, but placed the loan in special services, adding pressure on the sponsor to be paid off,” Bram explained. GSP's analysis of the property demonstrated the retail tenants’ dedication to the location and provided support for top-of-the-market rental terms. This attracted a lender who aggressively underwrote the request, the building appraised as underwritten by GSP, and the previous lender was paid in full. Bram was assisted by GSP vice president Jonathon Lee in securing the non-recourse loan at a fixed rate of 5.37% for 10 years, with an amortization of 30 years and a loan-to-value of 75%. Another deal was a $3.2 million financing for the acquisition of a property in Glendale in just 35 days. “Timing was critical for this deal, in order to meet the borrowers' investment objectives for an unrelated project,” noted Shahin Yazdi, a GSP vice president. Yazdi secured a non-recourse loan at a fixed rate of 5.3% for 10 years, with an amortization of 30 years and a loan-to-value of 55%. In a third transaction, GSP secured $2.6 million for the acquisition of a 31-unit property in Canoga Park. Yazdi noted that the borrower had locked the interest rate for the loan at application, but market rates fell significantly just before closing, so the borrower wanted to adjust the rate. "We worked with the lender to allow the borrower to re-lock at the then-lower market rate, in exchange for a small portion of the borrower's rate,” Yazdi said. The fixed-rate loan is at 6.02% for 10 years, rolling into a floating rate loan for the remainder of the 30-year loan. The fourth deal was a $2.3 million cash-out refinance of a 40-unit property in Glendale. The borrower required a self-liquidating loan that precluded the balloon risk to refinance the property, according to Yazdi, who noted that the loan closed in less than 45 days, thanks to the high quality of the asset and the borrower’s strength. The fixed-rate loan is at 4.25% for five years, with a term of 30 years and an amortization of 30 years.

Decron Properties has signed Regency Theaters to a 72,200-square-foot lease at the Plant, a 367,000-square-foot power retail center at 7888 Van Nuys Blvd. in Van Nuys. The location will be Regency's largest theater, according to Daniel Nagel, associate commercial leasing director for Decron. Some of the new amenities Regency will offer are D-Box Motion Seating, additional 3D Screens and films available in Spanish subtitles. Built in 1998 and acquired by a Decron Properties affiliate in 1999, the Plant is located on the site of a former General Motors plant. In addition to the 367,000-square foot shopping center, which is 99.5% occupied, it includes 550,000 square feet of industrial space near the intersection of Van Nuys and Roscoe boulevards.

2410 Sequoia Dr.

Sudco International, an importer of motorcycle replacement and high-performance accessories, bought a 22,500-square-foot industrial building at 2410 Sequoia Dr. in the Dominguez Technology Center in Compton from Susan and Tai Chung for $2.3 million. The sellers were represented by David Grote, a partner in the Torrance office of Klabin/CORFAC. The buyer was represented by Ryan Lewis of Voit Real Estate Services. Sudco has occupied the building as its new headquarters.

INLAND EMPIRE

Home decor and gift retailer Hobby Lobby has signed leases to open its second, third and fourth California stores in former Mervyn's locations, with two of the three in the Inland Empire cities of Temecula and Rancho Cucamonga. The Temecula store is a 76,211-square-foot location, and the Rancho Cucamonga store is a 74,991-square-foot location. The third store will be a 76,248-square-foot location in Roseville. Hobby Lobby signed the leases with Inland Western MDS Portfolio LLC, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Inland Western Retail Real Estate Trust. The three new stores ad the first in their respective markets, according to Jed Craig, vice president/leasing director of Inland Southwest Management LLC, a subsidiary of Inland Western.

The City of Desert Hot Springs has named NAI Capital of Encino, CA as commercial leasing agent for its community redevelopment agency. As part of the assignment, the Palm Desert office of NAI Capital will represent the city's commercial property located at the southwest corner of Palm Drive and Pierson Boulevard, which serves as the gateway to the commercial and governmental districts of Desert Hot Springs. The redevelopment agency recently completed a multimillion dollar renovation and reconstruction of the property and its surrounding area, noted leasing agents Dwight Capitani and Greg Zimmerman of NAI's Palm Desert office.

LAS VEGAS

MIG Real Estate of Newport Beach, CA has sold the 100,000-square-foot Sunset Pilot Plaza, a class A office property, to Ameriprise Financial Inc. The project was built in 2008 and is one of just a handful of class A facilities in the market offering 100,000 square feet of contiguous space, according to Greg Merage, CEO of MIG Real Estate. The property is a three-story building in the 3.3 million-square-foot Hughes Airport Center business park at 280 Pilot Rd. MIG Real Estate was represented by Darren Lemmon of CB Richard Ellis in Las Vegas. Ameriprise Financial was represented by Charles Snyder in the Minneapolis office of CBRE and Randy Broadhead of CBRE's Las Vegas office. MIG did not disclose how much it paid for the property or how much it sold it for; industry sources say it paid $8.7 million when it acquired Sunset Pilot Plaza in October 2010.

Buyer 3D Investments acquired the 113-unit Palm Hill Apartments at 4770 E. Owens Ave. from Palm Hill Apartments LLC in a deal negotiated by EVP Tom Papoulias of the Commerce, CA office of NAI Capital and SVP DeLonne Valens of NAI Capital’s West Los Angeles office, who represented both the buyer and the seller. The all-cash deal closed in a 25-day escrow at a price that was not disclosed. Papoulias noted that the property had some deferred maintenance issues, including roof repair, landscaping and air conditioning.