Cress Continues Western US Shopping Spree

By Scott Baltic

12750, 17785 Center Court and 12898 Towne Center

Cress Capital has acquired five Class A office buildings totaling 461,920 square feet in Cerritos, Calif., for $89.5 million.

The portfolio is part of the Cerritos Towne Centre, a 125-acre mixed-use development that includes more than 1 million square feet of Class A office space, a full-service hotel, the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts and a 600,000-square-foot open-air retail center.

Built between 1989 and 1998, the two seven-story and three two-story buildings are 88 percent occupied overall. The individual properties are located at 12610 Park Plaza, 12750 Center Court, 17785 Center Court, 12898 Towne Center and 17871 Park Plaza.

12750 Center Court

“Cerritos is an underappreciated market at the epicenter of the LA Basin,” Ryan Parkin, a Cress managing partner, said in a prepared statement. “The amenities in the Towne Center offer a walkable urbanized suburban environment, an attribute we target in our office investments.”

“The acquisition of these Class A buildings aligns with one of our core investment strategies,” added Tom Parnell, a Cress partner. “Highly-amenitized and well-located suburban office assets will produce superior returns over the long term.”

The Los Angeles Central/Southeast office market saw overall vacancy edge down from 15.6 to 15.5 percent during the quarter, according to a second-quarter report from Daum Commercial Real Estate Services. More significantly, average asking rents rose 3.2 percent year-over-year, from $3.10 to $3.20 full service gross.

A serious surge 

This deal continues a streak of acquisitions by Cress over the past year and a half that now totals nearly $250 million and brings the company’s portfolio in Southern California and Colorado to roughly 1.7 million square feet. In two transactions in June 2017, Cress paid about $110 million for more than 800,000 square feet of office and flex industrial space in Southern California and Colorado. The sellers were TA Realty and The Pauls Corp., of Denver.

Last December, Cress bought a suburban Denver office building, the 210,000-square-foot Union Tower in Lakewood, for $25.2 million. And in February of this year, in a partnership with Revesco Properties, Cress purchased Orchard Pointe, a 120,873-square-foot, six-story office building, in Greenwood Village, Colo., for $16.6 million.

Images courtesy of Cress Capital