Fullerton Towers deal ends 2021 in top spot

Fullerton Towers, one of the largest office complexes in the North Orange County municipality, has sold for $45.5 million.

Los Angeles-based Barker Pacific teamed up with Las Vegas-based Kingsbarn Realty Capital to buy the 230,000 square-foot office towers at 1400-1440 N. Harbor Blvd., according to the Orange County Business Journal.

The four-building complex was sold at a price of $200 per square foot by a venture between San Juan Capistrano-based Birtcher Anderson and UBS of Switzerland. The companies renovated the property three years ago.

Fullerton Towers includes two seven-story buildings at North Harbor Boulevard and Brea Boulevard, each totaling more than 110,000 square feet. Monthly rents currently run about $2.75 per square foot

It was the most expensive office sale reported in Fullerton for 2021 and was second among all commercial property deals in the city after the $168-million sale of Amplifi apartments.

The Fullerton Towers deal adds the only Orange County property to the portfolio of Barker Pacific, which owns office towers at 626 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles, and One Sansome St. in San Francisco, according to its website.

For Kingsbarn, the property less than a mile from Fullerton’s downtown follows an active year for office investments in O.C. The company paid $45.5 million in June for the Lake Forest office headquarters for Del Taco Restaurants. The 155,795 square-foot Palm Terrace office complex fetched $260 per square foot.

Though most offices were still closed because of the pandemic in 2021, investor appetite for specific types of office properties was strong across Southern California.

The region’s top deals included the 1-million square foot CBS Studio Center in Studio City for $1.85 billion, at $1,850 per square foot; the 97,400-square-foot DreamWorks Campus in Glendale for $327 million, at $657 per square foot; and the 576,000-square-foot Torrance Technology Campus in Torrance for $182 million, at $316 per square foot.

• • Here are LA’s top office sales in 2021
    

[OCBJ] – Dana Bartholomew