$13M Deal Returns Voit To Office Projects

TUSTIN, CA-Voit Development Co. has sold an 86,633-sf office project here for $12.6 million and says it plans to develop more office space in view of the gathering momentum of the county’s office market. James V. Camp, SVP at Voit Development Co., points out that the company bought the building at 14511 Myford Rd., leased 53% of the space to Safeco Insurance Co. and then closed the recent sale to Guidance Real Estate LLC–all in less than a year.While Voit is currently well known as an industrial developer, it has also acquired and developed more than 6.8 million sf office projects and is probably best known as the developer of one of the region’s premier office centers, the 3.1-million-sf Warner Center Plaza and Business Park in Woodland Hills. “Now that office is heating up again, we intend to use our expertise to acquire value-add office opportunities and to develop new office buildings,” Camp says.The Voit SVP says that buyer Guidance will occupy a part of the Myford Road building as an owner-user and will lease out the rest. The acquisition and sale transactions on the Myford office building, as well as the Safeco lease, were handled for Voit by Trent Walker and Jeff Williams, both of Voit Commercial Brokerage’s Irvine office. Guidance Real Estate LLC was represented by John Collins, also of Voit’s Irvine office.The turnaround in the Orange County office market stands out as one of the most sustained in the region. The office vacancy rate in the county improved to 9.6% at the end of 2004, its lowest level in four years, then continued to decline to just above 9% in the first quarter of this year. Rents, which stood at $2.14 per sf per month on average in the county at the end of the first quarter, appear headed for record levels, according to a Voit Commercial report by Jerry Holdner, VP and chief of research for the firm.