Excel Legacy Corp. has been busy selling real estate recently to pay off debt, buy back stock and raise money for future acquisitions, a company official said.
In recent weeks, the Rancho Bernardo company sold 11 commercially zoned acres at 4S Ranch near Rancho Bernardo and the Scottsdale Galleria, a 500,000-square-foot retail mall in Scottsdale, Ariz. The vacant land was acquired in 1998 concurrent with the purchase of TenantFirst Real Estate Services, a property management company Legacy bought.
Vice President Graham Bullick said Excel Legacy also put up for sale its Palm Springs shopping center, Palm Springs Desert Fashion Plaza. Several other properties are under contract of sale as well, he said.
Bullick said the sales would help generate cash to pay off debt and repurchase the company’s publicly traded stock. The sales will also allow management to concentrate on larger projects, such as Newport-on-the-Levee, a 350,000-square-foot retail entertainment center in Newport, Ky., that includes a 1 million gallon aquarium and a theater complex Excel Legacy is developing.
Bud Leedom, an analyst with First Security Van Kasper’s University Towne Centre office, sees good things ahead for the real estate company.
“Part of what they’re doing deals with Price Enterprises, which they acquired recently. These guys are the old management of Excel Realty Trust, the strip shopping center company, and they’re back in business,” Leedom said. “These guys are seasoned real estate investors who know what they are doing. With these asset sales it appears they are repositioning the company’s real estate portfolio.”
As of March 31, the company’s liabilities were $118 million, Bullick said. About $51 million of that are notes used to buy Price Enterprises, a REIT, last year.
“This process will allow us to get rid of all of our short-term debt of about $48 million,” Bullick said.
Excel Legacy was formed two years ago from some of the assets of Excel Realty Trust, a strip shopping center owner that was merged a short time later with New Plan Realty Trust of New York.
Excel Legacy’s first quarter earnings before depreciation, amortization and deferred taxes increased to $2 million from $1.4 million in first quarter 1999, a 46 percent increase. The company suffered a net loss of $373,000 for the first quarter, compared to a $174,000 gain for the first quarter of 1999.
Excel Legacy began trading in March 1998 and during that month the stock sold for up to $7 a share. However, rising interest rates have hurt the company stock price. As of July 5, Excel Legacy was trading at around $2 & #382; on the American Stock Exchange.
Interior Resources Aids Axsys Move
IR2-Interior Resources Inc. is finishing plans for the relocation of manufacturing and office personnel for Axsys Technologies.
The project entails a two-phased relocation of the company’s more than 200 employees to 65,000 square feet of office and manufacturing space within an existing 195,000-square-foot, single-story facility at 7603 St. Andrews Ave. in Otay Mesa, said Kristine O’Hollearn, the space planning and relocation firm’s founder.
IR2 was also responsible for the bid and design of the voice and data cabling system, coordination of the telephone system installation and systems furniture selection and installation, she said.
Toni Ireland is serving as the project manager for IR2. Larry Malone, information systems manager for Axsys Technologies, is overseeing the project. Pacific Cornerstone Architects of San Diego is doing the architectural design, she said.
