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A five-floor, 128,183-square-foot office building in Irvine is under new ownership, with San Diego-based Sentre Inc. selling its interest in 18191 Von Karman to one of its tenants.
The building was sold to the transportation and logistics firm Hyundai Glovis for $22.1 million, or $172 per square foot as part of a 1031 Exchange.
CoStar data shows the Hyundai Glovis’ lease at the building expired in April and coincided with the company’s purchase of 18191 Von Karman.
Hyundai Glovis was founded in Seoul in 2001 as Hankook Logitech under the Hyundai Motor Group umbrella. The word “Glovis,” according to the Irvine-based company, is a combination of “global” and “vision.”
The company, which now has nearly 12,000 employees worldwide, established its presence in the U.S. in 2002 and switched to the Hyundai Glovis name in 2011.
Hyundai Glovis specializes in parts logistics, car and truck carriers, bulk transportation, terminal operations and recycling of electric vehicle batteries.
Colliers represented Hyundai Glovis on the deal, with Cushman & Wakefield acting as the transaction’s listing agent, according to CoStar.
Sentre, the previous owner of 18191 Von Karman, is a real estate investment firm in San Diego. The firm, founded in 1989, buys, develops and operates real estate properties throughout the Western U.S.
The building at 18191 Von Karman was built in 1999 and developed by Dorn Platz & Co. Architectural firm Ware Malcomb designed the building.
Orange County Office Activity
The sale price of 18191 Von Karman, on a per-square-foot basis, is on par with the recent sale of 725 W. Town and Country Road in Orange, which sold for $171 per-square-foot.
Other major office transactions for Orange County included Mission Ridge in Mission Viejo, which sold for $32 million and $138 per-square-foot, and the sale of 2525 Main Street in Irvine for $37.6 million and $262 per-square-foot. Lennar Corp., meanwhile, spent $65.2 million to buy a 92,000-square-foot office building in Los Alamitos in March.
A Kidder Mathews office report for the first quarter of 2025 said the Orange County market performed better than the national average and showed “signs of a slow but positive recovery.”
“In the near term, several unused suburban office buildings were placed in the market and redeveloped into major industrial logistics hubs,” according to the report. “Tenants are once again looking for upscale office buildings in prime locations close to amenities, and the Airport Area region is driving the most recent lease activity. A rising trend among landlords in soft markets is using redevelopment and tenant improvement allowances as a major tenant attraction strategy.
“The low vacancy rate is a result of Orange County’s limited ability to undertake large-scale construction projects,” the report continued.