Maguire to Sell Orange Country Property for $211M

By Dees Stribling, Contributing Correspondent

-- Maguire Properties, under new management in recent months and pursuing a plan to reduce the debt it incurred by bulking up on SoCal office space in recent years, is selling off Main Plaza Towers in Irvine, Calif.

All together, the company expects the four-building, 607,000-square-foot complex to fetch $211 million. The buyer is another California property landlord, San Francisco-based Shorenstein Properties L.L.C. The deal includes nearly $10 million of cash reserves and the assumption of about $161 million of financing, and is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.

The properties represent Shorenstein’s first foray into Orange County. Another Maguire property in Orange County, Park Place, is also reportedly on the block.

Maguire’s recent changes in management, as reported by CPN, have included Nelson Rising taking the reigns from founder Robert McGuire when the latter’s bid to acquire the company fizzled. Despite the changes, major shareholders are now pressuring company to reconsider takeover offers it rejected early this year.

According to reports in the Los Angeles Times and other media outlets, hedge funds Third Point of New York and JMB Capital Partners of Century City, Calif., are prodding Maguire to once again consider an offer of about $20 per share, or nearly $939 million, to take the company private. Having lost roughly 65 percent of its value in the last year, shares in Maguire were trading this morning at $12.27.

Homepage Story Here