The Alameda Corridor is a 20-mile railroad “expressway” that connects the World Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach with the national rail system. The Corridor began operating in April 2002 and its main purpose was to alleviate truck traffic on local freeways and create a more efficient way to move cargo containers from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to the Downtown Los Angeles rail yards. Effectively, the Corridor has created an efficient solution to get cargo containers from the Ports to major inland distribution points in the Inland Empire and as far east as Kansas City and Chicago. As of April 2016, the Alameda Corridor was handling an average of almost 36 trains per day and over 11,000 TEU’S. The Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority (ACTA) owns and operates the Corridor and charges user fees to the railroads on a per-TEU basis.
The five-county Greater Los Angeles region represents the largest industrial market in the nation with approximately 1.0 BSF, connected by the region’s modern sea ports, highways, railways and airports. The region historically has boasted the strongest market
fundamentals in the country relating to rents, vacancy and availability rates and pricing. In Greater Los Angeles, the overall vacancy rate was 1.2% as of the fourth quarter of 2017. The market also generated 9.3 MSF of gross activity in the fourth quarter.
The Los Angeles City Council voted and approved new regulations for recreational cannabis businesses. Recreational marijuana will officially spread like wildfire on January 1, 2018, per California state law. This will be a boon for industrial real estate landlords as cannabis growers and cultivation operations typically pay premium industrial rental rates compared to regular warehouse and manufacturing users. Pot growers often pay in excess of 2X the market rate. Some key rules are below from the L.A. Times article. The mayor is expected to sign the ordinance soon.
Under the new regulations, pot shops can open their doors only in specific commercial and industrial zones and must operate at least 700 feet from schools, public parks and libraries, child care centers, alcohol and drug treatment centers and other “sensitive” sites, as well as from other pot retailers.
Other kinds of marijuana businesses, including growers and manufacturers, would be confined to industrial zones and banned within 600 feet of schools. And marijuana manufacturers that use volatile solvents would also be prohibited within 200 feet of residential areas.
To prevent an “undue concentration” in neighborhoods, city leaders also decided to cap the number of pot shops, growers, manufacturers and marijuana “micro-businesses,” which do a combination of things, allowed in each community.
Although the local CPI has hovered between 0-2% since the recession. In 2017 we have seen it steadily rise above 2% to a current 2.5%. This will affect the annual increase increments for new leases signed. Historically industrial escalation clauses demanded a floating increase between 3-5%, whatever the CPI at the time.
