An Agoura Hills-based real estate investment company purchased a six-building industrial/research and development campus in Goleta in an off-market transaction for $50.7 million.
In a news release, Hayes Commercial Group said the closing price “represents the fourth-highest price on record for a commercial (non-hotel) property” on Santa Barbara County’s South Coast. The buyer, Majestic Asset Management, will rename the nearly 12-acre campus as Tech Park @ Engage. The site is located at 315-346 Bollay Drive and 320-340 Storke Road.
Steve Hayes and Francois DeJohn of Hayes Commercial Group represented the buyer in the transaction.
The asset was part of a portfolio of commercial properties managed by real estate investment company The Towbes Group. The entity created by Michael Towbes, a local businessman and philanthropist who died in 2017, owned the Goleta property since 2000, according to Hayes Commercial Group.
Following Towbes’ death, the Towbes estate sold three commercial assets in recent years, including the 165,905-square-foot AppFolio campus in Goleta in 2019, Hayes said.
“Consistent with Mr. Towbes’ long history of support for the community and philanthropic leadership, proceeds from the sale of these assets will benefit several prominent local nonprofit organizations,” the firm’s news release said.
The nearly 194,700-square-foot business park consists of multiple tenants with high-tech and office uses.
Inogen, a publicly traded medical device company, vacated one of the buildings when it expanded to the adjacent business park.
Majestic was “Goleta’s busiest landlord” in 2021, Hayes said, signing 13 leases that comprised 65% of the total square footage leased in the area. The latest purchase is Majestic’s fifth acquisition in the Goleta market since 2018.
This was the second major sale so far this year in Goleta, Hayes said, following a relatively slow year in office and industrial sales in 2021. In January, an investor purchased a property at 6500 Hollister Ave. for $21 million.
The recent purchase by Majestic in Goleta is the fourth-largest commercial sale ever recorded on the South Coast, following the sales of 3805 State St. for $63 million in 2021,; the 50-90 Castilian Drive site for $61 million in 2020; and the 1 and 71 S. Los Carneros Road property for $53 million in 2006.