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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

REAL ESTATE QUARTERLY: A-List Investors Fuel Industrial Buying Spree in Valencia

-“Twilight” star Taylor Lautner bought an industrial distribution condominium in a nearly 83,000-square-foot building at 24811 Avenue Rockefeller from Krausz Cos. Inc. in San Francisco for $12.2 million, or $147 a square foot. The actor, who bought the property under his LLC Group Up Properties Reckefeller, hopes to build equity in commercial real estate. -Factory Effex Inc. bought a 20,000-square-foot manufacturing building for $2.4 million, or $122 a square foot, from Renee Cohen. The building, known as Valencia Gateway, is located at 24849 Anza Drive, and will be fully occupied by Factory Effex, which produces motorcycle and motocross accessories and graphics. -Santa Clarita’s Centre Pointe Parkway Properties Inc. sold Centre Pointe Business Park for $6.8 million, or about $142 a square foot, to 780 West Garvey LLC in Los Angeles. The two-building property, comprising 47,855 square feet, at 26450-26470 Ruether Ave. in Santa Clarita is fully leased to business service firms, manufacturers and a furniture importer. -Sylmar’s Triscenic Production Services, which provides entertainment-industry transportation and storage, bought a 44,500-square-foot warehouse in the Valencia Industrial Center for $4.6 million, or $103 a square foot. The building at 25158 Avenue Stanford was formerly the headquarters of Andrews Electronics, whose owner Harry E. Acker sold the property. -New Century Ford bought the former Volkswagen dealership at 24055 Magic Mountain Parkway from Parkway Volkswagen for $5 million, or $285 a square foot. The off-market transaction closed in June. The 17,556-square-foot property is expected to become an Infiniti dealership. Following a few quarters of solid growth, the Santa Clarita Valley office market took a step backward in the last three months. Vacancy rose 1.1 points to 15.7 percent in the second quarter as tenants gave back 21,900 square feet, according to data from Colliers International. The vacancy rate was only half a point below where it was a year ago. Also, landlords were forced to drop asking rates by 2 pennies to $2.30 a square foot. As the numbers reflect, no large new office leases were signed in the quarter. Brokers and analysts said it’s likely that a number of small companies shed some space in the submarket last quarter that accumulatively increased the vacancy rate. But that shouldn’t necessarily signal an impending downward spiral for office space. “It’s a small market so it’s not uncommon for activity to register (in the overall numbers) every other quarter,” said Ryan House, vice president at brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. Arty Maharajh, vice president of research at real estate consultancy DTZ, said many of Santa Clarita’s bread-and-butter tenants are schools or colleges, as well as medical or health care firms, whose leasing figures may not show up in the submarket’s vacancy rate because they do not fall under the category of office space. “Those tenants have been doing deals and that medical office report would be different than (the office report for buildings occupied by) law firms and tech firms,” Maharajh added. Another sign the market may not be doing as poorly as the figures suggest was the investment scene. “There have been a number of projects that have not only traded over the last six months but a number currently being marketed for sale that are pretty significant,” House said. For instance, Valencia Corporate Center, a portfolio of three buildings at 28470-28490 Avenue Stanford, is under contract to an unnamed buyer. Though the asking price was not disclosed, brokers believe that seller Parallel Capital Partners Inc. of San Diego was hoping to get as much as $44 million for the property. Also, Atlanta-based Invesco is reportedly marketing the Valencia Town Center III, where Princess Cruises has its headquarters. The 395,000-square-foot mixed-use property, at 24305 Town Center Drive, comprises four office buildings, retail space leased to more than a dozen tenants including Buca di Beppo and Optx Optometry, and two parking structures. While office sales were slow, however, the Santa Clarita industrial market had plenty of activity in the second quarter. Vacancy dropped two tenths of a point to 4.3 percent as tenants bought or leased 34,200 square feet. For example, AMS Fulfillment Inc. leased 209,000 square feet on the first floor at 28624 Witherspoon Parkway in Valencia. The property, built in 2006, is owned by International Airport Centers Inc. of Highland Park, Ill., which purchased it in 2010 for $19.4 million, according to CoStar. The industrial market even attracted A-List investors. Actor Taylor Lautner, who starred as Jacob Black in the “Twilight” movie trilogy, bought an industrial condominium at 24811 Avenue Rockefeller in Valencia for $12.2 million, or $147 a square foot, in May. Lautner’s limited liability corporation Group Up Properties Reckefeller bought the property, which is fully leased to PPG Aerospace until 2021, as a pure investment play. – Jacquelyn Ryan

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