Henry and Susan Samueli, who own or control much of the land surrounding Anaheim’s Honda Center, have just bought a notable real estate property next to the city’s other big sports stadium.
A venture controlled by the duo, owners of the Anaheim Ducks, paid $64.5 million for a 12-acre, 105,000-square-foot industrial site next to Angel Stadium, the Business Journal has learned.
The deal, for 2040 and 2050 S. State College Blvd., which sits just southwest of the baseball park and roughly a mile from Honda Center, is the largest local reported real estate purchase for the Samuelis in several years, according to property records.
The couple, with a net worth estimated by the Business Journal at over $11 billion last year, have now spent well more than $200 million over the past decade or so buying commercial land around Honda Center.
The State College site was envisioned about a decade ago, and several owners ago, as a major mixed-use development, dubbed LT Platinum.
Sources tell the Business Journal that the purchase by the Samuelis will help further their own mega-development plans, OCVibe, branded as OCV!ibe.
The industrial facility, located just southwest of Angel Stadium, will serve as the new home for OCVibe staff. Their current office, Arena Corporate Center, is slated for demolition as part of the project’s recently revised plans.
“We acquired this property to meet our temporary needs as we build out OCVibe,” VP of Public Affairs for OCVibe Matt Hicks told the Business Journal.
The Samuelis’ development plans call for more residential units and the elimination of the three-building Arena Corporate Center, which is also home to the Anaheim Ducks, Carrington Mortgage Services, UCI Health and Platt College.
If the revised plans are approved, Arena Corporate Center will make way for additional residential units and a neighborhood park. The plans also include flexibility to allow new office space, officials said.
In the short term, the Samuelis aim to convert the 2040 and 2050 S. State College facility into a flex office space for OCVibe staff, according to city of Anaheim Chief Communications Officer Mike Lyster.
A timeline for such a conversion is unclear. Sources say that the property in the long term could be used as the new Anaheim Ducks headquarters, though OCVibe officials could not confirm.
“We certainly welcome their ownership of this building,” Lyster told the Business Journal.
“We know they are a very good owner and [we value] their commitment to developing in our city.”
The seller of the property is a venture between EBS Realty Partners in Newport Beach and West Hartford, Conn.-based investment adviser Penwood Real Estate Investment Management.
The deal for the property worked out to nearly $616 per square foot.
Randy Ellison, Rick Ellison and Brett Lockwood of Cushman & Wakefield represented Penwood in the deal. Cushman’s John Harty and Jason Ward represented the Samuelis’ affiliate, dubbed H&S Ventures LLC, a vehicle used by the Samuelis for real estate and other investments.
Nixed Mixed-Use Plans
The 2040 and 2050 S. State College Blvd. site was previously eyed for two different mixed-use developments.
Hong Kong-based LT Commercial Real Estate Ltd. acquired the property, along with 9 acres of adjacent land at 2030 S. State College Blvd., for more than $28 million a decade ago.
Plans under LT Commercial’s ownership involved an L.A. Live-type development holding some 1.7 million square foot of entertainment, hotel and residential uses, with several towers built. Its cost was estimated in the $500 million range when initially proposed.
In 2016, the city approved a plan with 405 residential units, 583,000 square feet of commercial development, and 77,000 square feet of office development. Construction never kicked off at the site.
Irvine-based Camphor Partners three years later paid $32 million for the industrial facility and the 9-acre site at 2030 S. State College Blvd. The firm planned a scaled-down version of the LT project that would have seen 947 rental apartment units, a 25,000-square-foot grocery store, two parking structures totaling 1,970 spaces and a 1-acre park.
That project, however, also did not advance.
Camphor in 2021 then sold the facility to the Penwood and EBS venture for $43.8 million, or a 37% premium.
OCVibe Pivot
Arena Corporate Center was only expected to be renovated as part of OCVibe’s initial iteration.
However, falling demand for older offices—because of slow return to work—prompted the developer to pivot.
A time frame for the demolition of the office campus hasn’t been disclosed.
The Samuelis’ H&S Ventures paid a reported $125.5 million for the office complex in 2018.
The deal is the largest real estate buy the Samuelis are reported to have made in the immediate vicinity of the arena where their hockey team plays. The couple bought the Anaheim Ducks for about $75 million in 2005; it’s now worth well around $925 million as of 2023, according to Forbes.
A series of additional real estate buys over the past decade or so gave the Samuelis control of more than 75 acres immediately east of the Orange (57) Freeway, running north from the city’s ARTIC transit station, past Honda Center, to Ball Road.
The low-rise Arena Corporate Center complex, just north of Honda Center, totals about 385,000 square feet. It was built in 2003, according to records from real estate tracker CoStar Group Inc.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
