PS Business Parks Inc. has sold its Lusk Business Park property in San Diego for $315 million as part of a 1031 exchange with an affiliate of Longfellow Real Estate Partners.
Net proceeds for the sale will be about $311 million, according to the Glendale-based REIT.
The company had owned Lusk Business Park, located in the San Diego submarket of Sorrento Mesa, since the buildings were completed between 1985 and 1988.
The 21-acre campus currently features nine buildings with 370,000 square feet of office and industrial space as well as laboratory and retail space, a fitness center and ample parking.
However, the property’s greatest potential value is that it has 1.8 million square feet zoned for life science, which the buyer appears eager to development. In recent months, Boston-based Longfellow has acquired San Mateo Bay Center for $156 million as well as the 280,365-square foot The Foundry in San Diego and other office campuses toward that goal.
“We are pleased to announce the agreement to sell our Lusk Business Park,” PS Business Parks President Dan “Mac” Chandler said in a statement. “This accretive transaction will allow us to realize significant value for our stockholders.”
PS Business Parks anticipates that roughly $50.5 million of the net sale proceeds from this deal will qualify as Section 1031 for its recently acquired Port America Industrial Park in Dallas. If the company is unable to include it as part of a 1031 transaction by year’s end, it will pay shareholders a one-time special dividend.
Based on its estimate of this year’s REIT taxable income, it expects the special dividend to yield between $160 million and $183.5 million, or $4.75 to $5.25 per common share and unit.
PS Business also intends to sell its Royal Tech Business Park in Irving, Texas. The company is currently in the process of marketing this asset for sale.
PS Business Parks currently oversees 97 properties spanning 28 million square feet with some 5,100 tenants.
Shares of PS Business Parks (PSB) closed Thursday up $2.26, or 1.4 percent, to $165.54 on the New York Stock Exchange, while the Dow closed up nearly 1 percent.