Regions West
Maguire Completes Second SoCal Office Sale in a Week
Sept 3, 2008
By: Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

Maguire Properties Inc. has closed the books on the disposition of City Plaza, a 324,000-square-foot office building in Orange, Calif. An entity owned by Hudson Capital L.L.C. took the property off Maguire's hands.

The sale, the Los Angeles-based REIT's second in Orange County in less than a week, is part of Maguire's plan to reduce debt and increase Funds from Operations by selling certain assets in Orange County.

Developed in 1969 and renovated in 1999, City Plaza carries the address of One City Boulevard West and sits off the 5 Freeway within three miles of Disneyland. The 18-story tower--as well as the 607,000-square-foot office complex in Irvine that Maguire sold to Shorenstein Properties L.L.C. for $211 million last week--became part of Maguire's portfolio with its $3 billion acquisition of a former Equity Office Properties portfolio totaling 8.1 million square feet in Orange County and Los Angeles from The Blackstone Group in April 2007. Maguire financed the transaction with $2.3 billion in new mortgage financings, a $520 million corporate facility and a $233 million bridge loan.

Soon after the behemoth purchase, despite having immediately sold off certain parts of the portfolio, Maguire began to run into trouble and in December 2007, announced the formation of a special committee to consider strategic alternatives, including the potential sale of the company, for increasing shareholder value.

With the completion of the sale of City Plaza, which had a $111 million debt attached to it when Maguire acquired it, Maguire has completely dissolved its obligation under the project loan, funding obligations and operating losses. More Orange County sales may be on the horizon. In June, Maguire announced it had brought real estate services firm Eastdil Secured on board to market Park Place, a 105-acre mixed-use campus in Irvine.

Maguire owns and operates office properties in Southern California. The public REIT is the largest owner of Class A office buildings in the Los Angeles Central Business District, with 9.1 million square feet at eight properties.

 
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