SAN DIEGO — Santa Ana-based Triple Net Properties LLC, a tenant-in-common buyer group, rcently purchased three high-rise office buildings in downtown San Diego totaling 1.16 million sq. ft.

The $274.5 million transaction is believed to be the largest office building sale in San Diego history, the largest in Southern California so far this year and the largest office sale in Southern California since the Warner Center in 2002.

With the acquisition, which included Emerald Plaza, Triple Net becomes the largest landlord in the market, controlling approximately 12.5 percent of the office space in the San Diego Central Business District.

Grubb & Ellis Co., the real estate services firm who brokered the transaction, issued a statement saying that San Diego is generally considered to be one of the three most desirable investment markets nationwide for investment capital currently.

The properties purchased include the Comerica Bank Building at 600 B St. (336,049 sq. ft., 24 stories), Emerald Plaza at 402 W. Broadway (356,901 sq. ft., 30 stories) and Golden Eagle Plaza at 525 B St. (427,988 sq. ft., 22 stories). Collectively, the properties were 91 percent leased at the time of sale with major tenants including Liberty Mutual Insurance, Comerica Bank, San Diego Chamber of Commerce, California Bank and Trust, United States Navy, City of San Diego and Harcourt. The assets were sold by San Diego-based Southwest Value Partners.

Kevin Shannon, Scott Schumacher and Michael Moore of Grubb & Ellis’ South Bay office represented the buyer and the seller in the transaction.

"This is Triple Net’s largest acquisition to date," said Shannon. "They should place over $1 billion into office properties this year, which is major for a tenant in common buyer group. This transaction follows a $46 million office sale we brokered in Torrance, California last month involving the same buyer and seller."

Both the Torrance and San Diego portfolio sales were sold "off market" to Triple Net.

Steve Corea spearheaded both acquisitions for Triple Net. Tony Thompson is the chairman and CEO of Triple Net LLC, which manages a portfolio of about 19 million sq. ft. of commercial properties with a market value of over $2.5 billion. Triple Net has regional offices in Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, San Antonio and Dallas.