The airport area was the Orange County office market's hot spot in the second quarter, Grubb & Ellis says.

Overall, the county saw 575,000 square feet of positive net absorption of space. Year-to-date, more than 1.1 million square feet absorbed.

Airport submarket led the way with 256,008 square feet of absorption; South County followed with 203,420 square feet. West County was the only loser, with 1,740 square feet added to its market.

Airport area vacancy dropped 1.1 percentage points to 20.6 percent; South County dropped 1.6 percentage points to 16.8 percent. Overall, the Orange County office market vacancy rate fell 1.2 percentage points to 18.4 percent.

Grubb & Ellis says: "The Orange County office market benefited from the positive news of the area's unemployment rate decreasing to 8.5 percent during the second quarter, the lowest unemployment rate in all of Southern California. Lateral moves by tenants for same size spaces decreased, while a number of companies signed lease expansions as consumer confidence rose and unemployment decreased. After such a robust improvement the past six months, the latter half of the year will likely see more limited positive net absorption due to businesses fearing a potential double-dip recession. Job growth will remain vital for the market to continue to recover."

An "opportunistic" real estate fund managed by Newport Beach property investors KBS gained ownership of two northern California business properties through foreclosure after buying the mortgages at deep discounts.

The KBS Strategic Opportunity Real Estate Investment Trust - planning to have 20 percent of its portfolio in "opportunistic" situations - took over:

Roseville Commerce Center in Roseville, with 113,342 square feet in five "flex industrial" buildings and an six acres of partially developed land. KBS bought the non-performing $14.7 million loan, secured by the center, in September for $5.9 million. As of June 30, 2011, completed buildings in the center were 39 percent occupied.

Iron Point Business Park, a 211,056-square-foot, five-building office complex in Folsom. KBS acquired the $25.6 million non-performing loan on the park for $19.8 million in March. As of June 21, Iron Point was 37 percent occupied.

KBS has started to lease up both properties.

Improved commercial real estate fundamentals have made these kind of plays appealing. CoStar noted these trends in the industrial sector recently, not that the vacancy rate fell to a two-year low of 9.8 percent, down significantly from 10.4 percent a year ago.

"Although quarterly absorption numbers were modest, the warehouse market has now experienced five consecutive quarters of positive demand totaling 103 million square feet - exceeding the 59 million square feet of net absorption in early 2002 to late 2003 following the previous downturn, which admittedly was much less severe," CoStar reported. "However, absorption of warehouse space remains roughly half what analysts would expect given the overall rebound economic growth since early 2010."

Says Jay Spivey, CoStar director of analytics: "Overall, this is a good, but not great, recovery."

Alton Corporate Plaza within the Irvine Business Complex has been bought by a group tied to Hines and Oaktree Capital Management. No price was revealed.

Alton Corporate Plaza is a two-building, 205,267-square-foot office complex on 9.55 acres. It's 100 percent leased through March 2014, with 62 percent of the space occupied by JPMorgan Chase, and the remainder by Nexus IS and Source Interlink Magazine.

Seller was Legacy Partners, who bought the property in 2005.

Biotechnology¹s Isotis Orthobiologics will be staying at 2 Goodyear in Irvine for a while.

The company - which makes advanced medical materials for bone repair - just completed a five-year, 43,538-square-foot industrial lease renewal worth $2.4 million, according to Trent Walker and Sam Olmstead of broker Voit Real Estate, who helped landlord KTR Capital Partners in the deal.

Voit's Walker notes that Isotis occupies roughly 60 percent of the two-tenant, approximately 70,000- square-foot building. Isotis was founded in 2003 and has an office in Switzerland as well as at 2 Goodyear, near the corner of Jeronimo Road and Bake Parkway.