Raytheon renews Goleta office lease, Sonoma Fit grabs State St. location
At Hayes Commercial Group, Raytheon renewed its 121,000-square-foot office and R&D space at 75 Coromar Dr. in Goleta. They have leased the building for decades and are one of the South Coast’s largest and most long-standing employers and most prominent government contractors. Hayes’ brokers Francois DeJohn and Steve Hayes represented the landlord.
Additionally, 530 State St. was leased by Sonoma Fit. The large retail storefront, 11,450 square feet on one of the most desirable blocks of State Street, was previously Samy’s Camera for several years but then it was leased by a food concept that didn’t come together and never managed to open. Hayes’ brokers Caitlin Hensel and Kristopher Roth represented the landlord.
Finally, there was the off-market sale of 6900 Hollister Ave. in Goleta for $5.5 million. As a prominent retail building on the corner of Hollister and Storke/Glen Annie, the 6,000-square-foot building sits on just over four-fifths of an acre. Purchased by a dentist who will occupy part of the building and lease out the rest to other tenants, it qualifies as an “owner-user” purchase. Hayes’ brokers Francois DeJohn, Steve Hayes and Greg Bartholomew represented the seller.
RADIUS BROKERS DEAL
At Radius Commercial Real Estate Group, Lisa Shields of Radius Ventura recently represented the buyer of an 8,400-square-foot industrial building on a half-acre lot located at 811 Mercantile St. in Oxnard, California. The buyer, Mister Softee Ice Cream of Southern California, plans to occupy a portion of the building as a food truck commissary.
“This really showcases the demand for food trucks in the greater area,” Shields told the Business Times.
“Mister Softee identified the need to provide quality commissary services to the many food truck businesses that make up our market, and this will be a huge benefit to those businesses.”
The property was listed at $2.05 million.
SANTA MARIA VALLEY HOUSING SUMMIT
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber, in conjunction with the Home Builders Association of the Central Coast, is hosting the 2023 Santa Maria Valley Housing Summit on March 23 from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. The event will take place at the Santa Maria Country Club and will include a reception at 6:00 p.m.
There will be a panel moderated by Craig Minus of the Santa Barbara Housing Coalition. Together, panelists will be discussing housing issues and CEQA challenges with attorneys from Brownstein, Farber, Hyatt and Schreck, Laurie Tamura and more.
Jordan Cunningham of CM Public Affairs will discuss SB 1439. Dan Clement, Deputy Director Long Range Planning Santa Barbara County will speak after Cunningham. This will be followed by table discussions with the main topic being, “How do we work together to achieve more workforce housing that is affordable to Santa Maria Valley residents?”
Some prominent investor program sponsors include the Boys & Girls Club of Mid-Central Coast, Community Bank of Santa Maria, St. Mary’s of the Assumption School and Wilshire Health and Community Services.
SANTA BARBARA HOME SALES
A Sotheby’s residential property report found the median sales price of a Santa Barbara home sat at $2.3 million, which equates to a 14% dip from this time last year. However, compared to January, this presented an increase of 25%, up from $1.78 million. While there was a decrease in the number of homes sold, with the median sales price turning up, market results could be described as mixed.
There was a small change in the number of new listings in February, with 73 new properties listed as compared to 71 in January. The average number of days a property spent on the market before the final sale was up 30 days in February as compared to 21 days in January. Meanwhile, the total inventory of homes for sale in Santa Barbara increased by 8% between February and January, with 152 listed last month and 140 at the beginning of the year.
However, average days on the market hit 30 days in 2023 as compared to 23 days this time last year. Further, closed sales were down 39% from this time in 2022. All that said, Sotheby’s says the market is strong as there continues to be a demand for properties and a gradual increase in inventory.
CARPINTERIA COMPLEX GETS TENANTS
The multi-tenant space under construction at 700 Linden Ave. in Carpinteria gained its first few tenants in the last week. Channel Islands Surfboards and the owners of Bettina have signed on to be a part of the complex.
Channel Islands Surfboards will continue to have an outpost in the Funk Zone while the new Bettina location has been described as more casual than the Montecito Country Mart flagship. The new Bettina plans to provide more of a “to-go” style restaurant, offering a smaller menu of pizzas, salads, desserts, with the potential for sandwiches in the near future.
Madeleine Benn covers commercial real estate for the Pacific Coast Business Times. She can be reached at mbenn@pacbiztimes.com.
