Investor and philanthropist Joe C. Wen recently acquired another office property at a discount, this time the two-tower campus 5000 Birch Street in Newport Beach.
Wen’s company paid $33 million for the property, which John Hancock Life Insurance Co. bought for $104.5 million in 2015.
The transaction is another notable office asset that sold at a loss following the historic workplace downturn during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Wen, the founder of Formosa Ltd. and owner of Orange County’s largest residential mansion, bought a 530,000-square-foot office tower in September 2024 in San Diego for $45.7 million. The seller was Irvine Co., which took a significant loss after buying the tower in 2003 for $134.3 million, according to the San Diego Union Tribune.
In 2023, Wen also bought One Pacific Plaza for $42 million in Huntington Beach. The 394,000-square-foot tower and home to BJ’s Restaurants’ headquarters sold in 2018 for $124.5 million.
Also in 2023, the twin, 13-story Griffin Towers in Santa Ana sold to a joint venture for $82 million, nearly 36% less than what the seller, Blackstone, paid for it nine years before.
Mark DeGiorgio, a senior director at Institutional Property Advisors, which represented both sides in the Birch Street deal, said that Wen’s company plans to complete the a renovation started by the seller.
Ten years ago, Wen built the 52,000-square-foot Villa de Formosa mansion above Crystal Cove in Newport Beach. The Taiwanese-born businessman is also known for his philanthropy, giving $50 million to UC Irvine last summer for the new Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health and to expand cardiovascular research and care at UCI Health.
38 new homes coming to Costa Mesa
Intracorp Homes will break ground this summer on 38 detached homes near its sold-out housing community The Place in Westside Costa Mesa.
The three-story homes north of West 16th Street will feature three bedrooms, two full baths, two powder rooms and a flexible first floor live/workspace with a bathroom.
Homes will range from 2,173 to 2,329 square feet, the homebuilder said. Other amenities will include private courtyards, partial ocean views, two-car garages and rooftop decks.
Intracorp said pricing would likely start in the high $1 million range. Construction should be complete by summer 2026.
Twin apartment buildings fetch $4 million
Twin, eight-unit apartment buildings in Anaheim sold March 31 for a combined $4 million, according to reps at Stanfield Real Estate Group.
The building at 605 E. Sycamore St. sold for $2 million, taking a price cut from its original list price of $2,147,500, according to the brokerage. The 5,118-square-foot building sits on a 9,583-square-foot lot.
The previous owner was charging $1,675 in monthly rent per unit.
The building at 601 E. Sycamore also sold for $2 million.
Grable retires at Tri Pointe in Irvine
Scott Pasternak is the newly appointed division president at Tri Pointe Homes in Irvine, succeeding Tom Grable who retired after 15 years with the homebuilder.
Grable joined the homebuilder in 2010 and was promoted to division president in 2014.
Before joining Tri Pointe Homes, he worked at William Lyon Homes, Beazer Homes and Watt Homes. In some 30 years in the homebuilding trade, he also held leadership roles with the California Building Industry Association, the Building Industry Association of Southern California and the Los Angeles County Business Federation (also known as BizFed).
Pasternak, formerly the firm’s vice president of business operations, joined Tri Pointe in 2015. He also sits on the board of directors for the BIASC’s Orange County chapter.
TriPointe was founded in Irvine in 2009. It shifted its national headquarters in 2021 to Incline Village, Nevada.
CRE people on the move
Jim Kruse, formerly with Kidder Mathews, was recently named director of brokerage at NAI Capital Commercial and its 13 offices across Southern California. Based out of NAI’s West Los Angeles office, Kruse will work on the brokerage’s training program and recruitment initiatives across the region.
Ram Mann recently joined JLL as vice president in the firm’s Irvine office. Previously at A Street Partners in Newport Beach, he will focus his work on office tenants at JLL. “The current landscape of our market requires a very detailed and customized approach to help our clients best position themselves for immediate and long-term success,” Mann said in a statement.
Brian Russell, a former NFL safety, recently joined CBRE as an executive vice president with the firm’s National Partners Industrial & Logistics Capital Markets team in Irvine. Previously he was at Eastdil Secured where he led the Southern California Life Science team as a managing director. Russell played in the NFL for nine years, starting with the Minnesota Vikings in 2001 and ending with the Houston Texans in 2009.
The real estate roundup is compiled from news releases and written by Business Editor Samantha Gowen. Submit items and high-resolution photos via email to sgowen@scng.com . Please allow at least a week for publication. All items are subject to editing for clarity and length.
