Wings to warehouse for Raytheon-leased office in Brea

Duke Realty has bought an office building leased to Raytheon in Brea, with plans to demolish the site and build a 120,000-square-foot distribution center once the aerospace company’s lease expires in June, The Real Deal has learned.

The Indianapolis-based industrial REIT bought the building at 2727 Imperial Highway from HBA Realty for $34 million, according to JLL’s Blake Bokosky, who represented the seller in the deal. Duke did not respond to a request for comment.

Since the property is zoned for office and industrial, Duke is planning to submit plans to the city of Brea in the coming months to build a Class A warehouse on the site, Bokosky said.

Waltham, Massachusetts-based Raytheon will exit its lease once it expires in June 2022, with plans to consolidate the Brea operations into other offices, he added. Raytheon subsidiary Collins Aerospace currently occupies the building.

Raytheon has long had a stronghold across Southern California, though it moved its formal space and airborne systems headquarters out of El Segundo in 2013. The firm still occupies space at 2000 Imperial Highway in El Segundo, near LAX.

HPA Realty bought the building for $25.5 million in 2018, along with another 91,000-square-foot building at 2767 Imperial Highway from AEW Capital Management, records show.

In April, Bokosky first listed the site for around $105 per foot for the land, he said. It ended up selling for $150 a foot.

“It’s a new benchmark for industrial land values,” he said.

Duke Realty isn’t the only developer buying up office properties in Orange County for conversion into industrial space.

Last month, e-commerce behemoth Amazon paid $165 million for a 30-acre office campus occupied by Bank of America in Brea.