Orange County MARKET SPOTLIGHT
A World of Hurt
Buyers and sellers are far apart on price and companies are delaying
space decisions. This once-vibrant area is at a standstill.
By N.M. Ibrahim
CT Realty Corp. typically does
about 10 deals a year, and has
moved on as many as 16 during
the course of a particularly good year. But
in 2008, the Newport Beach-based real estate investment company has completed
all of three deals, and none have been in
its OC Airport/South Coast Metro area
home turf.
It’s not because CT Realty hasn’t actively
sought deals in its backyard, having eyed
retail, office and R&D properties. It’s that
striking a price in such an unsettled econ-
omy has been more difficult than most real
estate professionals would have anticipated.
“We’ve looked at things in the Airport or South Coast Metro area that
we’ve underwritten and said, ‘If we
need to do this at this risk-reward equation, this is the price we need,’ ” says
Bob Campbell, president of CT Realty.
“The seller basically said, ‘Go pound
sand.’ And we said, ‘We understand,
but we don’t feel comfortable doing
the deal anywhere near your price.’ ”
That story illustrates the widespread
