West Capital Lending Buys Irvine Offices for $24 Million

A mortgage brokerage is planting deeper roots in Orange County with an office buy that doubles as a headquarters move.

West Capital Lending purchased a five-story, 104,380-square-foot office building at 17911 Von Karman Avenue in Irvine for $23.8 million, L.A. Business First reported. John Hancock Life Insurance Company sold the property after acquiring it in 2016 for $34 million.

The deal works out to approximately $227 per square foot. Sunwest Bank issued an $18.6 million acquisition loan for the transaction, according to Yardi Matrix data cited by L.A. Business First.

West Capital plans to occupy roughly half of the building, taking space on the third, fourth and fifth floors as its new headquarters. The firm had already signaled the move last year, signing a 44,240-square-foot lease at the property in September, which was nearly four times the size of its previous Irvine office. Two tenants, appliance maker Thermador and architecture firm KTGY, will remain in place on the lower floors.

The Class A office building was completed in 1981 and renovated in 2012. The structure has roughly 21,700-square-foot floorplates and includes a multi-level parking structure with more than 400 spaces, controlled access and two passenger elevators. The Von Karman Avenue property is in Irvine’s Concourse business district less than a mile from John Wayne Airport.

The sale underscores a rebound in Orange County office investment, according to L.A. Business First. Last year, the Orange County office market recorded nearly $1.4 billion in investment activity across 65 properties trading at an average of $246 per square foot, per Yardi Matrix data. That marks a significant jump from $488 million in deals the year before for 24 properties averaging $187 per square foot, Commercial Property Executive reported. Still, building values are largely diminished from pre-pandemic figures, as evidenced by John Hancock Life Insurance taking a 30 percent haircut on the building when selling to West Capital Lending.

— Chris Malone Méndez