Harbor and The Bascom Group Expands Its Presence in Thousand Oaks - Closes Conejo Corporate Campus

LONG BEACH, Calif., Feb. 20, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Harbor Associates, LLC ("Harbor") has acquired the Conejo Corporate Campus in a joint venture with Blue Vista Capital Management ("Blue Vista"). The project is a two building, 198,478 SF office campus built in 2001 and located on 11.36 acres in the city of Thousand Oaks, California. The project is currently 55% leased to two tenants. Kevin Shannon and Scott Schumacher of Newmark Knight Frank represented the seller in the transaction.  The lender is a subsidiary of Granite Point Mortgage Trust Inc., which is externally managed by Pine River Capital Management L.P.

The Conejo Corporate Campus is one of the newest and most highly improved office projects in the submarket.  The project was built in 2001 and occupied by Amgen through 2011.  Amgen invested over $140 PSF in above standard tenant improvements. The high-end buildout includes numerous meeting and conference rooms, grand lobbies, a landscaped outdoor plaza, high speed fiber, Venetian plastered walls, and is fully furnished with Herman Miller.  The project has 14-foot slab-to-slab ceiling heights and offers 4:1000 parking. The buildings have unobstructed mountain views to the east along with efficient and easily divisible floorplates.

Harbor plans to re-position the project into a class A multi-tenant office property with cutting-edge meeting and conference rooms onsite. While the asset's high-quality improvements have been well maintained, the current single tenant layout is not geared towards the 5,000 to 25,000 square foot segment of the market. Harbor will proactively demise suites and re-engineer the building to accommodate tenants ranging in size from 8,000 to 100,000 square feet. The campus renovation plans include a new multi-color paint scheme, drought tolerant landscaping upgrades, and new project and tenant signage.  In addition, Harbor plans on building a 11,000 SF spec suite that will showcase modern finishes and an open-plan layout.

Conejo Corporate Campus is located immediately adjacent to the 160,771 square foot 'Think Here' office and R&D campus that Harbor acquired in December 2016 and increases Harbor's portfolio to over 350,000 square feet in the submarket.  The project marks the tenth value-add office acquisition for Harbor in the last three years. The acquisition expands Harbor's Southern California portfolio to 13 buildings stretching from Thousand Oaks, Century City, Orange County, and down to San Diego. 

Paul Miszkowicz, Principal for Harbor, adds, "Through our ownership of the adjacent 'Think Here' Campus we experienced strong tenant demand for differentiated and well-appointed office space, particularly for tenants in the 8,000 – 25,000 square foot range. We think there's unmet demand in this space and look forward to executing on our multi-tenant lease-up strategy."

Brad Johnson, Vice President for Harbor, states, "We are excited about the opportunity to transform a very well-appointed office asset from its current single-tenant configuration into a multi-tenant project that better meets the tenant demands of the Thousand Oaks submarket. Our focus evolves around our tenants and the ability to meet their real estate objectives while executing quickly and finding efficient solutions."

Justin Loiacono, Principal for Harbor, comments, "The Conejo Corporate Campus represents our tenth office acquisition in the last three years as a firm and expands our Southern California portfolio. We intend on building on our recent momentum by sourcing new opportunities and pursuing similar strategies in suburban office markets with interesting demand drivers to meet our acquisition goal of $250M over the next 12 months.  We have a robust pipeline of activity behind this transaction and look forward to continuing to build our Southern California portfolio."

Jason Schwartz, Principal for Blue Vista, adds, "We are thrilled to embark on this new venture with Harbor to complete a value-add repositioning of the Conejo Corporate Campus.  The property presents us with a unique opportunity to acquire a highly improved asset in partnership with an experienced local sponsorship team in a market that we believe has significant room to grow."      

About Harbor: Harbor Associates, LLC (www.harborassociates.com) is a value-add operating platform focused on acquiring and repositioning under-performing commercial real estate assets throughout Southern California and Denver. The three Principals of Harbor collectively have over 30 years of experience in Denver and Southern California and collectively have closed over $1.7B in acquisitions and asset managed over $2.5B in assets totaling over 3M SF of office. The company is a joint venture with The Bascom Group, LLC.  

About Blue Vista Capital Management: Founded in 2002, Blue Vista Capital Management, LLC is a leading real estate investment management firm focused on helping investors maximize returns in real estate through best-in-class investment strategies focused exclusively on middle market equity and debt, and student housing in the U.S. and select international markets. To date, Blue Vista has participated in direct investments and joint ventures representing approximately $7.5 billion in total capitalization and the firm has raised more than $2.0 billion in equity through various closed end funds and separate account relationships.

About Granite Point: Granite Point Mortgage Trust Inc. (www.gpmortgagetrust.com) is a publicly-listed commercial mortgage REIT that focuses primarily on originating and investing in senior floating-rate commercial mortgage loans and other debt and debt-like commercial real estate investments.

About Pine River:  Pine River Capital Management L.P. (www.pinerivercapital.com) is a global alternative investment firm founded in 2002 that focuses on relative value trading. 

Contact:  Paul Miszkowicz  
Tel: 562-436-4222
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE The Bascom Group