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The latest local vacancy figures aren’t pretty for Maguire Properties Inc., Orange County’s second-largest office landlord.
As part of its fourth-quarter earnings report early this month, the Los Angeles-based real estate investment trust said its OC buildings, which total about 8 million square feet, were 71.6% full at the end of 2007. That’s well below its companywide occupancy rate of 83.2%
It’s also an increase in Maguire’s local vacancy rates of about 7% from a quarter earlier, and an increase of nearly 17% from midyear 2007.
The 28.4% vacancy rate for Maguire in OC,which trails only The Irvine Company in office space owned here,is nearly double the county average, which most brokerages peg at 13% to 14%.
One part of the reason for the big increase in vacancies was that the fourth quarter saw the official termination of leases Maguire had with New Century financial Corp. in Irvine. That increased the vacancy rate of its new 3161 Michelson Tower to about 68%.
Other buildings at its Park Place complex now hold vacancy rates of about 29%.
In Brea, Maguire saw its primary tenant in the area, mutual fund manager Capital Group Cos., move to a new campus totaling about 615,000 square feet in the Irvine Spectrum. The 536,000 square feet of space that Maguire owns in Brea now is about 56% full.
Companywide, Maguire saw about 1.2 million square feet of office leases expire during the fourth quarter.
Among OC submarkets, Central County was the emptiest for Maguire in the fourth quarter, with its buildings now only 69.7% full, thanks to the imploded mortgage market there. Its buildings near John Wayne Airport were 71.4% full; and its Costa Mesa offices were 81.8% full.
The company didn’t have its typical call with analysts to discuss its fourth-quarter results, since it is in the midst of figuring out its near-term ownership plans. Late last year, a special committee of the company’s board agreed to consider a possible sale.
In other company news, 3161 Michelson no longer is the newest office Maguire has in OC. At its Washington Mutual Campus in Irvine, the company was recently issued a temporary certificate of occupancy for 17885 Von Karman Ave., a 150,000-square-foot office building. No tenants have been announced for the building.
Summit Super Bowl
Developer Parker Properties LP has opened the doors for its two new office buildings at its Summit Office Campus in Aliso Viejo.
The four-story buildings, at 20 and 30 Enterprise, total about 260,000 square feet. Along with other landscaping, the buildings come with an eye-opening parking structure that has a big waterfall running along the outside of the garage.
The two buildings are set to be joined at the campus in a few months by the opening of Pacific life insurance Co.’s nine-story tower that runs alongside the Foothill South (73) Toll Road, followed by a Renaissance Club-Sports hotel and gym.
Parker’s preparing to move its headquarters across the street to 30 Enterprise, where it will be the first tenant. Looking to drum up interest from area brokers, it just held an open house with a unique prize for one winner (reporters weren’t eligible, unfortunately): a chartered flight and a pair of tickets to the Super Bowl.
The winner was Jason Lantgen, an associate in the Newport Beach office of Grubb
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