Panda Express family buys Pasadena corporate park for $78M

The family behind food court staple Panda Express paid $78 million for a corporate park in Pasadena, The Real Deal has learned.

Cherng Family Trust, an affiliate of Panda Restaurant Group snapped up a three-building office complex from Columbia Property Trust this week, according to sources familiar with the deal. The properties are located at 250 N. Halsted Street and 3475 East Foothill Boulevard. Columbia announced the sale earlier this week but did not reveal the buyer.

Representatives for the real estate investment trust declined comment. Messages left Friday with Panda Restaurant Group were not returned.

The deal is a steep drop in price from the $116 million that Columbia Property Trust paid for the 260,000-square-foot in 2007, according to Los Angeles County property records. (The trust is paying $300 per square foot.)

Eastdil Secured was marketing the property. Representatives for the firm declined comment.

The Pasadena parcel sits just 14 miles away from Panda Restaurant Group’s corporate address in Rosemead. The private company was founded in 1973 by Andrew Cherng who remains its board chairman and co-chief executive.

The majority of Panda’s revenue reportedly comes from its Panda Express Chinese fast food restaurants, but the company is also a real estate investor in Southern California and Nevada, perhaps most notably teaming up with developer Tiffany Lam to buy the Waldorf Astoria in Las Vegas for $214 million.

The corporate park is anchored by bank holding company Green Dot Corporation and Tetra Tech, an engineering consulting service that has faced legal troubles including being sued last year for allegedly creating false invoices on a federal nuclear cleanup contract. Tetra Tech signed a 65-month lease extension at the corporate park last year, according to a Columbia Property Trust press release.