Valencia Town Center Plaza was old, in poor condition and more than half vacant. That made it a great opportunity for a Los Angeles private equity firm to turn it around, add value and make a fast profit. Normally, Trion Properties invests in apartments, said Mitch Paskover, principal and co-owner. But the company saw the 26,200-square-foot Valencia Plaza in late 2013 when the Santa Clarita market was still recuperating from the economic downturn. A mix of retail and office space, the center at 24510 Town Center Drive is on a busy corner surrounded by apartments and a hotel and across the street from a large retail mall. Trion picked it up for $6.8 million, Paskover said. “It was a good deal; we bought it at a time when the market was low,” he added. Trion gave itself three years to turn it around and sold it in December for a 44 percent markup and within 5 percent of its asking price. To get there, Trion invested $626,000 in painting the exterior, repairing the roof and cleaning up the property. It remodeled a second-floor space to accommodate a new tenant and subdivided a large space. At purchase, the property was 41 percent occupied. Now, it’s 85 percent, Paskover said, and Trion raised the rent by around 80 cents a square foot before selling it for $9.8 million to Rawson, Blum & Leon in San Francisco. Deja Vu On Jan. 12, the developer of the proposed Newhall Ranch master planned community in Santa Clarita were back in a familiar setting – making the case at a public hearing for their decades-old project. Mission Village and Landmark Village, the first two subdivisions proposed within Newhall Ranch by Five Point Holdings in Aliso Viejo, were the specific topics of a public hearing before L.A. County planning officials at a high school. Between 200 and 300 people were at the three-hour meeting so that officials could hear their comments, according to Steve Churm, chief communications officer for Five Point, and news stories about the meeting. About 33 spoke out against the project, while 22 or so made comments supporting it, he added. Newhall Ranch was approved 10-plus years ago by the county to build 21,500 homes and 11.5 million square feet of commercial and industrial space. But last year, the state’s Supreme Court determined that an environmental impact report prepared for the project by the Army Corps of Engineers and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife didn’t sufficiently analyze potential greenhouse gas emissions and protection measures for an endangered fish species. In response to the emissions issue, Five Point now plans to build Newhall Ranch as a zero-net greenhouse gas emissions community. Through measures within and outside the community, the plan has gotten nods of approval from the California Air Resources Board, the Department of Fish and Wildlife and L.A. County’s Department of Regional Planning. The agencies preliminarily determined the project would offset all GHG emissions, according to Five Point. Don Kimball, community president of Five Point, read a statement at the meeting that was e-mailed to the Business Journal. He reminded the audience that the company developed Valencia. “We have taken all of our experience and learnings from developing Valencia, and used them to help ensure that Mission Village, Landmark Village and all of Newhall Ranch represent a ‘legacy project,’” Kimball said. Sweet Lease Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. of Canton, Mass., parent company of Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins brands, opened its first Dunkin’ Donuts location in Ventura County recently. The company leased 7,000 square feet at 30895 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. in Westlake Village in the North Ranch Gateway on the corner of Lindero Canyon Road. The deal was handled by GPS Commercial Real Estate Services Inc. of Santa Barbara. Store hours are 5 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week and serves the full menu of doughnuts, pastries, sandwiches, coffee, chocolate and iced drinks. Staff Reporter Carol Lawrence can be reached at (818) 316-3123 or [email protected].
