Market trends, leading or lagging indicators. As it relates to industrial property.
As shown above, California leads the nation in industrial cold storage cubic feet, that is warehouses with coolers and freezers. What drives this inventory of frigid distribution space? Metro areas have large populations along with food production facilities and food logistic hubs. California has major port activity along its coast to drive much of the logical demand.
The City of Los Angeles is in the process of updating its land use plans. These plans are the way the City plans for the future. The Draft Boyle Heights Community Plan Update is the blueprint for guiding this change. For a PDF of the plan see Boyle Heights Zoning Plan Update. Note the industrial section known as The Flats, on the left side of the image, is being rezoned from Industrial to an Innovative zone. This may be a riff from the CASP multi-zoned ordinance passed for the area north of DTLA near LA State Park, the cornfield.
No real estate agent can predict what the economy will bring forth in the next 12-24 months. We can look at leading and lagging indicators but no person knows what will trigger the next downturn. James Mackintosh of the WSJ provides an interesting set of options though to consider.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/pick-your-portfolios-story-late-cycle-sugar-rush-or-new-boom-1532971902?tesla=y
The transformation of the Downtown Los Angeles Arts District can be directly tied to the growing economic strength of creative industries such as the “entertainment industry as well as other artistic sectors such as fashion, digital media, architecture and the visual and performing arts.” (See recent L.A. Times article Creative Economy Is Booming.
Creative industries has driven employment, incomes, and commercial real estate values up. Many of these industries have leased former industrial buildings in the Arts District at rental rates far above what a traditional warehousing or manufacturing company would pay.
Contact us if you seek to lease or buy a warehouse in the DTLA Arts District.
