Biomedical firm Verenium has signed a 10.5-year, $24 million lease for 59,199 square feet of office and laboratory space at 3550 John Hopkins Court at the Nautilus development in Torrey Pines. Property owner Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. of Pasadena, CA was represented by Dave Odmark, Brian Starck and Jerry Keeney of Cassidy Turley BRE Commercial’s Life Sciences Group. Verenium was represented by Greg Bisconti and Brent Jacobs of Cushman & Wakefield. Nautilus is an approximately 87,645-square-foot, two-building, two-story, class A laboratory and office project that is under construction and scheduled for completion in June 2012.

INLAND EMPIRE

Corona Gateway

Newcastle Partners Inc. of San Francisco and capital partner HG Capital LLC have acquired Corona Gateway, a a three-story, 68,000-square-foot class A office building at 4740 Green River Rd. in Corona in an REO sale. The property, built in 2008, was 25% occupied at the close of escrow. Newcastle Partners founder and CEO Dennis Higgs said the partnership acquired the building at substantial discount to replacement cost. Corona Gateway includes 53 individual suites ranging from 200 to 2,500 square feet. Newcastle's plan for the property is to work with Andrew T. White of 360 Commercial Partners to market the property to smaller local tenants for immediate occupancy.

SZ Prosperity Investment Inc. of Rowland Heights, CA has paid all cash for a fully occupied 14,500-square-foot retail property at the entrance to Promenade Temecula, a 1.14-million-square-foot regional mall in Temecula. SZ bought the property for $5.65 million from Beverly Hills-based Temecula Pad PQ LLC, which was represented by Jeff Conover and Rich Walter of Faris Lee Investments. Built in 2000, the property is situated on 1.92 acres at 26520-26550 Ynez Rd. It includes a 6,900-square-foot Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery as well as a shops building that includes Jamba Juice, Ming’s Restaurant, Pacific Pita and Promenade Dental Care. The property closed at a 7.61% cap rate, garnered multiple offers and sold at 98% of the list price, according to Conover. The buyer was represented by Jackson Chang of IRN Realty. Conover noted that Faris Lee focused on Asian buyers within California in marketing the property. "With the devaluation of the US dollar and US property values still recovering, the buyer, a Chinese private capital real estate holding firm, seized the opportunity to own a secure and stable investment that offered favorable intrinsic value with a fully leased and well-located property," Conover said in an announcement regarding the deal.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY

The Los Angeles-based owner of three suburban mid-rise office buildings in Maryland, New Jersey and Southern California has refinanced the properties with $26.45 million in debt arranged by Marcus & Millichap Capital Corp., a subsidiary of Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services. Jake Roberts and Anita Paryani, both vice presidents capital markets in MMCC's West Los Angeles office, arranged the financing, which is for three years, interest only, with two one-year options to extend, at a loan-to-value ratio of 75%. "This debt financing presented some challenges from the beginning," says Roberts. "The buildings are not located in prime markets, their vacancy was higher than average and some of the tenants had gone dark, which meant that we had to underwrite as a true bridge loan even though the upside was a bit more difficult to define in the short term." Paryani noted that the client, a private REIT, came to MMCC after some of the REIT's relationship lenders could not provide financing that would allow the REIT to accomplish its goals. "After a significant amount of detailed analysis and structuring, MMCC was able to secure a few lenders that understood the situation. We closed on time under a strict deadline," Paryani adds.

Omninet Capital LLC of Beverly Hills has secured financing totaling $15 million on for its 114,029-square-foot Siete Square office complex in Phoenix and its 122,115-square-foot Broadway Industrial in Los Angeles. HFF placed the fixed-rate loans with Jefferies LoanCore Capital. One was a 10-year loan for Siete Square and the other a five-year loan for Broadway Industrial. The loan proceeds were used to acquire and refinance the properties, respectively. Siete Square is a two-building complex at 3737 and 3877 N. Seventh St. in Phoenix. Combined the properties are 89% leased. Broadway Industrial, at 140 N. Ave 19 in Los Angeles, comprises 11 buildings and is fully leased. The HFF team representing Omninet Capital, LLC was led by director Christopher Vittetoe.

The last of the four original Brown Derby restaurants is being offered for sale for $10.6 million, with Duncan Lemmon, president of the West L.A. office of Lee & Associates, as the listing agent. The 14,000-square-foot retail-restaurant building at 4500 Los Feliz Blvd. has been completely renovated and is currently occupied by Chase Bank and Louise’s Trattoria, which bought the the building in 2004 with a group of investors. Lemmon noted that the building was once owned by Hollywood director Cecile B. DeMille. The site was once planned for a mixed-use project to include a Whole Foods market and apartments. Since the Los Feliz Brown Derby restaurant closed in 1960, the building has been leased to four tenants, including a night club that used the name Derby. At the moment, another restaurant is in negotiations to lease the remaining 2,777 square feet of the building.

Florentine Apartments

Revere Investments has sold the 48-unit The Florentine Apartments at 9070 Florence Ave. in Downey to a private 1031 buyer for $10.5 million. In a separate transaction, Revere has acquired a 14-unit apartment property at 515 S. Chevy Chase Dr. in Glendale for $2.25 million. Both transactions were off-market. The Florentine is a gated property comprising six two-story apartment buildings situated on over 1.5 acres. Completed in 1965, the property was 95% occupied at the time of the sale and consists of 41 two-bedroom, two-bath units each containing around 1,400 square feet, three two-bedroom, two and one-half bath town-home units measuring 1,780 square feet, and four three-bedroom, two and one-half bath units measuring 1,900 square feet. Unit sizes are nearly double the market averages. In-place rents averaged around $1,750 at the time of sale. Revere acquired the property in 2004. According to Revere partners David Jankowski and Mark Chalfin, the property repositioning program included extensive building exterior and common area improvements. Revere increased rental collections by around 50% over the hold period. Matt Ziegler and Jeff Louks of Marcus & Millichap represented both sides in the transaction. The 515 S. Chevy Chase Dr. building was completed in 1987 and comprises two one-bedroom, one-bathroom units of around 700 square feet each and 12 two-bedroom, two-bathroom units, measuring approximately 900 square feet. Revere’s business plan for the property consists of improvements to the building and common area as well as upgrades to the interiors of the apartment units. The property’s current average in-place rent of $1,263 per unit per month is approximately 10% below the estimated average market rent. Levon Alexanian of KW Commercial represented both sides in the transaction.

Hackman Capital of Los Angeles has acquired a 13,704-square foot building at 3644 Eastham Dr. in the Hayden Tract of Culver City, according to founder and CEO Michael Hackman, who notes that the company now owns seven Culver City properties and still plans to expand there. Hackman says the company, which already has plans in the works to renovate properties it owns at the corner of Hayden Place and Higuera Street to create a 120,000-square-foot creative office complex, also plans to renovate the Eastham Drive building, which was built in 1949. To design the space at Eastham Drive, Hackman Capital has engaged Abramson Teiger, an architectural firm based in Culver City. Hackman notes that the company’s project at Hayden Place and Higuera Street will create parking for over 700 cars and that the parking can be shared with Eastham Drive tenants.

Hager Pacific Properties has signed three tenants to leases totaling 256,093 square feet and valued at $6.8 million in Pacoima and the City of Commerce. Cosmetic Enterprises, which formulates and manufactures cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, signed a six-year renewal of its lease to occupy 110,000 square feet at Pacoima Industrial Park at 12820-12926 Pierce St. Pet food producer Natural Balance signed a three-year lease to expand its space to 60,000 square feet at Pacoima Industrial Park, which has served as the brand’s headquarters since 1999. John DeGrinis and Patrick DuRoss of Colliers International represented Natural Balance. CA Liquidators, a family-owned business that specializes in the distribution of department store returns, signed a three-year lease with one five-year option to extend at 7344 Bandini Blvd. in the City of Commerce. Steve Allwright of Metro Resources represented CA Liquidators. Jack Cline and Peter Bacci of Lee & Associates represented Hager Pacific.

9 Mile Investments has acquired 42 condominium units at 1251 14th St. in Santa Monica in a bulk sale and plans to extensively renovate the property for a long-term hold, including several units that were delivered vacant at the close of escrow, according to Investment Real Estate Associates. SVP Chris Thompson of IREA represented the seller, Santa Monica Collection. Clark Everitt and William Everitt, vice presidents at IREA, represented the buyer. Terms of the sale were undisclosed.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Transwestern has added more than five million square feet of properties under management in the San Francisco Bay Area, boosting its total portfolio in the region to nearly nine million square feet. The new properties include a portfolio of more than 3.5 million square feet owned by San Diego-based Westcore Properties in areas including Marin County, Downtown San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Sacramento. In another new assignment, USAA Real Estate Co. named Transwestern to provide lease administration and property management services for more than 1.6 million square feet of industrial space in Fairfield, in the northern Bay Area. The portfolio consists of two large, single-tenant properties at 2600 Stanford Court and 5159 Fermi Dr. The Westcore and USAA assignments come on the heels of Transwestern’s assignment for 123 Mission St. in San Francisco, a 343,000-square-foot, class A office building, from Sumitomo Corporation of America as part of a nationwide office portfolio now managed by Transwestern.

Frozen food company Rich Products Corp. has signed a lease for more than 15 years for a 185,000-square-foot building at the Willowbrook Business Center at 1600 Whipple Rd. in Union City. The company is relocating to Union City from its present location in South San Francisco. Rich Products intends to employ more than 200 workers at the new space, which will serve as one of its primary manufacturing and distribution centers. This is the second lease over 100,000 square feet completed in Union City this quarter and one of the larger industrial transactions completed in the East Bay Industrial Market this year, according to Rick Keely of the Oakland office of Colliers International, who represented landlord Young’s Holdings Inc. along with Colliers’ Greig Lagomarsino. The tenant was represented by Mark Kol and David Black of CB Richard Ellis.

COLORADO

Engineering and environmental due diligence firm Partner Engineering and Science Inc. has opened an office in Boulder and has named Richard Morgan to head its Rocky Mountain operations. Morgan has authored more than 1,000 environmental reports on a variety of different property types, including large industrial, office high rises, retail malls, gas stations, bulk oil facilities, and agricultural. The new office is in response to a growing number of assignments in the Rocky Mountain region and it was important to establish a base operation in order to better serve local clients, said Morgan. Firm-wide, the number of environmental site assessments is up more than 110% over last year, with a significant increase in Colorado, Morgan noted.

ORANGE COUNTY

Capital Foresight of Los Angeles has refinanced its 84-unit Tustin View apartments in Santa Ana with a $10.4-million, non-recourse mortgage arranged by CB Richard Ellis Group through its direct HUD FHA lender, CBRE HMF Inc. The mortgage was funded through HUD’s Section 223(f) program and carries a 35-year fully-amortizing permanent loan term at a low fixed interest rate. Brian Eisendrath, EVP of CBRE Capital Markets in Los Angeles, co-originated the loan with Mary McDonald, first vice president of CBRE HMF, on behalf of the owner, a repeat borrower with CBRE. Tustin View, known as Park Villa before a recent rebranding, was built in two phases in 1968 and 1992. The property is midway through a unit renovation and exterior upgrade program which will be completed over the next 12 months. Jayne Hulbert, president of CBRE HMF Inc., noted that, in adddition to obtaining a very favorable rate for a 35-year term without a balloon deadline, Capital Foresight was able to recoup funds previously invested in this project through the HUD FHA execution. “Cash-out refinances under FHA can be up to 80% loan-to-value, more generous leverage than currently offered by most institutional lenders,” Hulbert pointed out.