News
Ballpark Buy
November 13, 2012
| Forget earthquakes. The West Coast must ponder if insurance covers damage from a home run ball. Cruzan | Monroe's latest buy,DiamondView Tower, is just behind the right field fence at Petco Park.The company paid $121M (the previous owner paid $160M for it a few years ago) for what principal Dennis Cruzan calls ?one of the most uniquely irreplaceable office buildings on the West Coast.? |
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| It's close to downtown's lavish library (now under way), as well as the NewSchool of Architecture. Many of the tenants (a list that includes FIDM, Fox Sports West, and Cox Media) can see games from the office. In addition, DiamondView boasts the ultimate sky box on the penthouse floor, used as event space. It was the first Class-A office to be developed as part of a major league ballpark in 2007. With the purchase, which was done along with Cigna Investments, Dennis has circled the bases. He's a former exec with JMI Realty, which did all the master planning for the ancillary development around Petco Park. This was the first time a public-private ballpark was developed, and much of the financing revenue resulted from that development, including hotel taxes and tax increment financing. |
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| Located at 350 Tenth Ave in the East Village, DiamondView contains more than 305k SF on 15 floors. According to Dennis, the building's vibe allows tenants to attract and retain talent. When it was developed, he notes, many of the tenants were ?obviously huge Padres fans.? (Even from up here we can see that was a strike, ump.) Now, though, the area surrounding the ballpark has grown up: There's been so much residential development over the last eight years that ?it's now this very vibrant urban environment that's more akin to what you?d find in other major metropolitan areas like San Francisco or Chicago.? Perhaps we'll convince Dennis to sing the Star-Spangled Banner at one of the games: in his free time, he's a musician and cyclist. |
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| We also chatted with Ann Bruce, Cruzan | Monroe?s finance and operations maven. She worked with Dennis on the DiamondView deal, which closed Oct. 25 as one of San Diego's largest transactions this year. The company just started construction on a project on behalf of TIAA-CREF: a brand new office building and the redevelopment of an existing building up in the Del Mar area. Cruzan | Monroe has a portfolio of about 1M SF. Ann?s a traveler in her spare time. She's also a former Division 1 athlete. |
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| DiamondView?s seller, Wereldhave USA, was repped by CBRE's Russell Ingram, Kevin Shannon, Louay Alsadek (above), Evan August, Kraig Kristofferson, Stacy Meronoff, and Andrew Taylor. The Dutch pension fund, which bought the property in 2008, decided to sell all of its US assets and focus on its European properties, Louay told us yesterday. (A noble return to putting mayonnaise on everything.) DiamondView was built shortly before the recession hit, but it's always been able to achieve the highest rents in the market. Most are between $2.55 and $3.50/SF, but ?They?ve got people paying $4.? According to Louay, San Diego's deal flow is down but a lot higher than 2009 and 2010. Before year-end, he expects to see ?just slightly less activity than 2011, but not that much of a drop.? He's marketing three properties right now, ranging from value-add to core-plus. |
