Deal Maker Overcomes Market Challenges to Realize Client Objectives
Greenberg Glusker today announced that it successfully closed the purchase of one of Irvine’s most coveted office properties – One Premier Place and Three Premier Place – in a sophisticated $73 million, all-cash deal handled by real estate Partner Steven J. Lurie on behalf of the purchaser, Transpacific Development Company (TDC). One of the largest office building purchase and sale transaction in California so far in 2009, the deal caps an approximate billion-dollar year of real estate matters which Lurie has handled since July 2008.
“This deal further solidifies Steve as one of Los Angeles’ top real estate deal makers,” said Greenberg Glusker’s Managing Partner Norman Levine. “In a year that many real estate attorneys are experiencing little transaction volume, Steve is closing landmark deals.”
Lurie guided TDC through a challenging real estate climate and a highly competitive process in its purchase from the owner, Ford Motor Company.
Several factors heightened the attractiveness and stakes of the deal for Southern California commercial real estate investors: two high-quality, long-term, tenants, Ford and Taco Bell; the prime Irvine location; and the building’s status as one of Orange County’s first green projects and LEED-certified buildings.
“This was a strategic and unique opportunity for TDC,” said Lurie. “It is always satisfying to realize a client’s objectives, and we are proud that we helped our client achieve exactly what it wanted.”
For Lurie, the Premier Place acquisition, which closed June 2009, is a highlight of his approximately one billion-dollar year. Within the last 12 months, he represented J.S. Rosenfield & Co. in the $65 million purchase and related acquisition financing of Larkspur Landing Shopping Center in Marin County, and a 31-year ground leasehold interest in Coast Village Shopping Center in Montecito, California. In addition, Mr. Lurie represented Malibu Lumber Yard, LLC in the acquisition, construction financing, development and leasing of the 32,000 square-foot Malibu Lumber Yard Shopping Center, the first retail development to be built in Malibu in two decades.
Besides his active real estate practice, Lurie maintains a thriving golf course industry practice, handling over 200 sale, purchase, lease, management agreement and other transactions for golf course industry clients.
Lurie’s success in closing deals during a down market was the subject of a recent profile by the Los Angeles Business Journal – the paper’s “Who’s Who in Real Estate” special report recognized him among a select group of 2009 powerbrokers in the region.