SchoolsFirst Doubles Riverside Campus

$26.5M FOR OFFICES RUN BY WATERFORD, GREENLAW

Santa Ana-based SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union, the largest credit union in California, has doubled down on its real estate holdings for back-office operations in Riverside.

A venture including Waterford Property Co. sold the second of two buildings at the 194,000-square-foot Towers at Riverpark to the credit union, which bought the first building there last year.

SchoolsFirst paid $26.5 million for 4210 Riverwalk Parkway, following its $25.5 million buy of 4204 Riverwalk last year.

The total $52 million deal is a 36% premium to the $38.3 million Waterford paid in 2017 in a venture with Irvine-based Greenlaw Partners and Boston-based CrossHarbor Capital Partners.

“The property was already a very highquality one when we bought it, and it will now serve as the perfect long-term holding for SchoolsFirst,” said John Drachman, founder of Newport Beach-based Waterford, formerly Stillwater Investment Group.

IE Base

SchoolsFirst was the primary tenant at the first building before buying it last May, using it as its Inland Empire regional office, a call center and retail branch.

The four-story, 96,900-square-foot office is just off the Riverside (91) Freeway about 3 miles east of the Corona (15) Freeway. It sold for nearly $263 per square foot.

The 97,100-square-foot sister property that just traded hands went for about $268 per square foot. SchoolsFirst doesn’t occupy space in the second building, but is expected to expand into it as existing tenants depart.

Both buildings were built in 2008 by Turner Real Estate Investments of Newport Beach.

The new space “will allow them to accommodate their employees and base of clients” in the area, Drachman said.

The site represents a new area of growth for the credit union, which had $15.2 billion in assets at the end of 2018.

True HQ

It’s growing locally too, with an expansion underway at a Tustin campus that already holds the bulk of its OC operations.

It got the go-ahead this summer to build a new corporate facility there and plans to move its headquarters from Santa Ana.

It wrapped a deal with the city to buy 1.8 acres just off the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway near Edinger Avenue, a vacant site adjacent to SchoolsFirst’s existing main facility, a two-building operations center of about 150,000 square feet.

Construction is expected to start soon on a three-story, 180,000-square-foot office, along with a hiring push: the new digs will ultimately add 750 employees at the campus, roughly doubling its workforce in the city to more than 1,600.

It’s already among the city’s largest employers.