Washington Capital Buys San Diego Campus for $40M

Spectrum Corporate Plaza. Image courtesy of CBRE

Washington Capital Management has purchased, on behalf of a client, Spectrum Corporate Plaza, a 129,146-square-foot office campus in central San Diego, for $39.8 million. The investment advisory firm picked up the two-building property in the Kearny Mesa neighborhood from Colony Capital, which had bought the asset from LaSalle Investment Management 2010.

Built in 2008, the Class A property at 9242 and 9246 Lightwave Ave. was 95 percent leased at the time of sale. Major tenants include Henkels & McCoy, Epsilon Systems, the State of California and the San Diego Workforce Partnership.

The pair of low-rise, freestanding buildings sits on a 6.41-acre lot with 514 parking spaces. The plaza has easy access to Interstate 806 and State Route 52, as well as nearby restaurants and amenities on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard.

CBRE’s Louay Alsadek and Hunter Rowe advised on the investment deal, while Brad Black of CBRE served as the leasing expert for the seller. Washington Capital Management represented its client.

“Spectrum Corporate Plaza has been one of the best-performing Class A assets in Kearny Mesa, maintaining over 90 percent occupancy since it was built in 2008, which made it a great prospect for the clients of Washington Capital Management in an off-market deal,” Alsadek said in a prepared statement.

Kearny Mesa sees another deal

The former aerospace and industrial district of Kearny Mesa has been redeveloped into a thriving office and retail hub, home to 4,500 businesses employing 88,000 San Diego residents. The submarket received more than $180 million in office investment in the first three quarters of 2018 and had the highest number of office property trades in San Diego, according to Yardi Matrix.

Washington Capital Management has more than $1.5 billion in real estate equity investments, primarily in the western U.S. The company recently formed a joint venture with Coast Income Properties to acquire Mesas View Plaza, a Class A office building less than 1 mile from Spectrum Corporate Plaza for $39.1 million. The deal was brokered by Cushman & Wakefield representing the seller, Stockbridge.

CBRE’s Alsadek and Rowe also handled the recent sale of Four Points Business Park, located just down the road from Mesas View Plaza, for $28.2 million. Fenway Capital Advisors and Waterfall Asset Management jointly acquired the 124,463-square-foot office campus from Brookwood Financial Partners.