Advantage Mailing Buys Factory Building in Anaheim for $27M

Advantage Mailing has purchased a 95,700-square-foot industrial building in Anaheim for $26.8 million, the largest OC owner-user deal in five years.

The locally based printing and distribution company led by Tom Ling bought the manufacturing facility at 3140 East Coronado Street, the Orange County Business Journal reported. The seller was TTM Technologies, based in Santa Ana.

The deal works out to $280 per square foot.

The average asking price for North OC buildings between 70,000 to 99,000 square feet in the first quarter was $270 per square foot, according to CBRE.

The acquisition marks an expansion for Advantage, which will transfer operations from a 65,517-square-foot warehouse in Placentia it has leased since 2019.

Advantage expects to occupy the building in six to nine months, after renovations. The facility, renovated in 2013, needs $4.8 million in upgrades before the company can use it.

The building last traded in 2012 for $7.5 million, or $78 per square foot. The buyer, Anaheim-based circuit board maker DDi, was acquired by St. Louis-based Viasystems, which was acquired by TTM, its last owner.

Keith Greer of CBRE Group, who held the listing, said owner-user buyers like Advantage are now better positioned than investors to snap up real estate, as higher interest rates have pushed many investors from the market.

Deals for OC industrial properties are faring better than the leasing market, even though there aren’t a lot of buildings available for sale, according to Greer.

The vacancy among Anaheim industrial buildings has more than doubled over the past year to 3.2 percent, according to Voit Real Estate Services. OC industrial vacancy was 3.2 percent in the first quarter, from 2.6 percent in the prior period.

— Dana Bartholomew