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.
There have been three previous attempts at incorporation in East Los Angeles in 1961, 1963 and 1974. The name of the proposed city is the City of East Los Angeles. The community is 7.5 square miles (4,783 acres) in size. The community is bounded by the cities of Los Angeles, Commerce, Monterey Park, and Montebello. There were 126,054 residents in East Los Angeles, according to the 2000 Census. There are 4,783 acres in East Los Angeles, 164 acres of which are industrial zoned land (375 parcels).
The manufacturing sector makes up 11 percent of East Los Angeles jobs. Ten of the largest employers are manufacturers of products ranging from metals, brushes and adhesives to tortillas and ice cream. Food-related manufacturing is more concentrated in East Los Angeles than in the County as a whole.
Top property owners by assessed value include the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles, California Water Service Company, AltaMed Health Services, Telacu Development, and Humboldt Creamery. Major industrial zoned streets include Noakes St, Union Pacific Ave., Calzona St., Los Palos St., Indiana St., Gage Ave., Bonnie Beach Place in the southern section. In the northern section, known as City Terrace, major streets include Medford St., Fishburn Ave., Worth St., Marianna Ave., Fowler St., Whiteside St., Valley Blvd., and Knowles Ave.
The City of Los Angeles is currently exploring the expansion of the artist live/work loft area into more industrial areas south of the current area. The expansion would allow increased conversion of existing industrial buildings in the area to joint live-work uses. A public hearing was held last week at SCI-Arc on 3rd Street.
Only obsolete industrial buildings should be allowed to be converted.
Vernon was founded and incorporated in 1905 by James J. and Thomas J. Furlong, both ranchers, and John B. Leonis, rancher and merchant. John Leonis was of Basque origin, coming to Southern California in 1880 to work for his Uncle Miguel Leonis whose original 1862 adobe dwelling in Calabasas was designated City of Los Angeles Cultural-Historic Monument #1. John Leonis established his own ranch on unincorporated county land southeast of Downtown. Recognizing the significance of the three major railroads running through the area, he convinced railroad executives to run spur tracks off the main lines and incorporated the adjacent three miles as an “exclusively industrial” city named after a dirt road, Vernon Avenue, crossing its center.
While waiting for industry to develop in the area, the founders of the city thought of marketing Vernon as a “Sporting Town.” In 1907, on land leased from Leonis, Entrepreneur Jack Doyle opened what was billed as the “longest bar in the world.” It had 37 bartenders, 37 cash registers and a sign advising “if your children need shoes, don’t buy booze.” Next door Doyle opened the Vernon Avenue Arena where 20-round world championship fights were held starting in 1908. Soon after, the Pacific Coast (baseball) League built a ballpark with its left field corner abutting Doyle’s bar and its own entrance into the park. The Vernon Tigers won three Consecutive league pennants. Last call for Doyle’s Bar was June 30, 1919 when over 1,000 people swilled their last pre-Prohibition drink. The chamber of commerce now sits atop Doyle’s onetime empire.
After 1919, Vernon went back to being exclusively industrial. Two giant stockyards, one owned by John Leonis, opened with meat packing quickly becoming Vernon’s signature industry. Twenty-seven slaughterhouses lined Vernon Avenue from Soto Street to Downey Road until the late 1960s. Said one longtime Boyle Heights
Resident, “we could smell Vernon in the evenings at our home.”
In the 1920s and 30s, heavy industries such as steel (U.S. and Bethlehem), aluminum (Alcoa), glass (Owens), can-making (American Can) and automobile production (Studebaker) grew in the City. The 1940s and 50s added aerospace contractors (Norris Industries), box and paper manufacturers, drug companies (Brunswig), and food processors (General Mills, Kal Kan). Giant meat packers (Farmer John and Swift) continued to grow. A strong, unionized labor force meant excellent middle class incomes for thousands of families.
In 1932, the City differed with Southern California Edison over industrial rates for Electricity, John Leonis orchestrated a Vernon bond measure to authorize the construction of the city’s own Light & Power plant, which is still operational today. Low-cost power and water, along with low taxes, attracted businesses to Vernon. Later, economical factors including, the free flow of capital and labor across borders had, by 1980, utterly transformed Vernon’s industrial face.
The City’s signature businesses, the slaughterhouses, relocated. Lower-cost producers in the East and Midwest reduced meat packing plants from 27 to today’s two. Bethlehem and US Steel competed unsuccessfully with European and Asian suppliers. Studebaker and American Can are closed. Defense cutbacks negatively impacted Alcoa and Norris industries. Today smaller industrial/commercial establishments including fashion design, garment-making, film production, electronics, and waste recycling are characteristic of the business community in Vernon.
The City of Los Angeles has grown again! As of January 1, 2008, the population count equaled 4,045,873 residents. Population growth usually correlates with economic growth and thus bodes well for commercial real estate in Los Angeles such as warehousing and manufacturing properties.
