Shopoff Buys Industrial to Build Homes in North OC

Shopoff Realty Investments has paid $60 million for two industrial buildings in Buena Park, which it plans to redevelop into homes.

The Irvine-based developer bought the 370,000-square-foot office and warehouse campus at 5600 Beach Boulevard, the Los Angeles Times and Orange County Business Journal reported.

The seller was Amway, a nutrition supplement company based in Michigan. The deal for the nearly 14-acre property works out to $162 per square foot, or $4.3 million per acre.

Shopoff secured a $49 million loan from an unidentified lender to buy the site. The loan was arranged by JLL.

Amway agreed to lease back the building to the company’s Nutrilite division, used for teaching and training, while Shopoff moves forward with plans to replace the buildings with townhomes in a partnership with Miami-based Lennar Homes.

The property, not far from the Buena Park train station, may be a premium site for redevelopment.

“Buena Park offers a tremendous opportunity for strategic redevelopment,” said William Shopoff, CEO of Shopoff Realty. “This acquisition allows us to capitalize on a prime Orange County location with significant accessibility and strong demand for new housing options.”

Last month, Shopoff Realty scored a $60.9 million loan to build 250 homes and a 215-room boutique hotel atop a former oil tank farm in Huntington Beach.

The developer plans to break ground this year on Magnolia Coast, the hotel-retail village with 19,000 square feet of shops and restaurants on 29 acres west of Magnolia Street and north of the Huntington Beach Channel, some 2,000 feet from the beach.

Shopoff’s eponymous firm, which he founded in 1992, had $3 billion in assets under management at the end of 2023, with $477 million in property sales and financing, according to the Business Journal.

— Dana Bartholomew