All posts by singlemalt

Native Angeleno and Industrial real estate agent since 1994.
Note

Tips for Choosing A Real Estate Agent

2 Comments

Choose a broker who has experience in your immediate area.

There is no substitute for true market knowledge, which can only be gained through extensive transaction experience in a defined geographic area. It is, quite simply, the only way to acquire the market ‘intelligence’ required to drive the hardest bargain for a tenant or buyer. An experienced tenant/buyer representation specialist who works in your target market knows not only what is available in your market before anyone else, they know every landlord’s negotiating strategy, motivations, financial constraints, operating expenses and other key information he can use to your advantage. Be careful of tenant/buyer representatives who don’t specialize geographically as they must rely on unreliable and incomplete third party databases for market data.

Choose a broker who has experience in your particular product type.

The importance of specialization also applies to the type of property contemplated in the lease or sale transaction. There are stark differences between industrial, office and retail properties. The physical aspects of each are substantially different, as are the lease structures, term, conditions and operating expenses, among other things. For example, a full service gross office lease is a completely different challenge than a single tenant industrial triple net lease.

Contact an agent specializing in the Central Los Angeles region and industrial manufacturing and warehouse properties.  Extensive property listings provided upon request to qualified clients.

Deal File

45 Unit Distressed Industrial Condo Project Sells

Leave a comment

hallrdAn industrial real estate new condominium development project consisting of  176,000 square feet of space sold this month to a local real estate developer.  The site is located in the City of Downey, Los Angeles County.  All cash closing!  Class A construction and never occupied.   The sale price was in the mid to high fifty dollar range per square foot of building area for this asset in foreclosure.

Deal File

Rail Car MFG Building Anchors CleanTech Manufacturing Center

Leave a comment

cleantechAnsaldoBreda is planning to set-up operations in Los Angeles to anchor CRA/LA’s CleanTech Manufacturing Center (CTMC). AnsaldoBreda will bring a new, sustainable facility and nearly 1000 middle-class jobs, as a result of METRO exercising its option to purchase light rail cars from AnsaldoBreda.

The CleanTech Corridor is a four-mile long district on the eastern edge of Downtown Los Angeles that stretches from the Los Angeles State Historic Park (formerly the ‘Cornfields’) at the northern end to the CTMC at the South, including both the east and west banks of the Los Angeles River. The CTMC is located at the intersection of 15th Street and Santa Fe Avenue in the downtown industrial core at the northern terminus of the Alameda Corridor Improvement Project and within the Central Industrial Redevelopment Project Area.

The project will consist of a 240,000 square-foot light rail car manufacturing facility on 14 acres of the CRA/LA-owned, 20-acre CTMC site.  The CTMC is a former Brownsfields Revitalization site purchased by CRA/LA from State of California in 2008 for $14 million with the goal of attracting job rich clean tech businesses to Los Angeles.

Deal File

American Apparel To Continue Operations in Downtown L.A.

Leave a comment

Clothing Maker Inks 10-Year Deal With Landlord Meruelo Maddux

The Downtown-based garment maker American Apparel has reached a 10-year agreement with landlord Meruelo Maddux Properties to stay in its 800,000-square-foot, Warehouse District headquarters, according to American Apparel financial filings.

Although American Apparel’s lease expired in December 2008, it has continued to occupy the pink factory building at Seventh and Alameda streets. The extension comes more than fourth months after Meruelo Maddux, Downtown’s largest landlord, entered bankruptcy.

Prior to reaching the deal, American Apparel, which employs about 5,000 workers at the 747 Warehouse St. factory, was mulling a move. The company considered an old Boeing plant in Long Beach, among other potential new homes, said their real estate broker.

“There were other considerations, other buildings to look at, but Meruelo stepped up,” he said.

American Apparel represents Mereulo Maddux’s largest tenant, both in terms of the size of its space and the value of its former lease.

Terms of the new lease were not disclosed.

American Apparel CEO Dov Charney said the lease was agreed to this month, but declined to comment further on the deal. Richard Meruelo, CEO of Meruelo Maddux, could not be reached immediately Tuesday afternoon.

In addition to housing almost all business operations, the factory has also served as a massive billboard for the company to promote itself and its progressive, often immigration-oriented political messages. American Apparel can also now safely cling to its various mottos touting its “Made in Downtown L.A.” cache.

The building’s sprawling parking lot is also known as the site of festive blowout warehouse sales that draw thousands of young buyers looking for discounted t-shirts, leggings, short shirts and underwear.   by Ryan Vaillancourt, Staff Writer, Downtown News.