Dealmaker: Newmark Closes $146M San Diego Office Sale

Newmark, New York, sold 296,000-square-foot San Diego office complex Sorrento Towers for $146 million.

Newmark Co-Head of U.S. Capital Markets Kevin Shannon and Executive Managing Directors Brunson Howard, Ken White and Paul Jones represented seller Shorenstein Properties, New York. Prime US REIT, Singapore, acquired the Class A asset in the city’s Sorrento Mesa submarket.

“Sorrento Mesa, and for that matter San Diego, is at the confluence of the life science and technology industries in Southern California,” Howard said.

Shannon noted few submarkets nationally have better liquidity after the pandemic than before it. “But Sorrento Mesa is one of them due to the life science engine gobbling up existing office inventory,” he said.

Built in 1990, Sorrento Towers at 5355 and 5375 Mira Sorrento Place includes two seven-story office buildings atop a multi-level parking structure.

KBS, Newport Beach, Calif., serves as the U.S.-based asset manager for the portfolio. KBS Western Regional President Gio Cordoves said occupancy exceeds 98 percent.

Sorrento Towers recently underwent significant common area upgrades including an expanded first-floor curtain wall that captured additional ground-floor area, a renovated open-air plaza and multiple outdoor collaborative meeting areas.

The Sorrento Mesa submarket houses San Diego’s largest concentration of technology companies, including firms in the life science, biotech/med-tech, telecommunications, wireless applications and healthcare sectors. Life science conversions of older office properties has become more prevalent throughout San Diego recently.