Valley Economic Alliance has listed its headquarters at 5121 Van Nuys Blvd. in Sherman Oaks for sale.The three-story office building, listed for $7 million, has housed multiple business groups since its purchase in 2001 by Valley Corporate Community Center LLC. It was jointly owned at the time by Valley Economic Alliance; the Valley Economic Development Corp., or VEDC; and the real estate firm Gelb Group. VEDC has since vacated its space in the building, selling its interest to John Parker of the construction firm Parker Brown.“The VEDC last year got into some problems and they were going bankrupt. And their one-third share was up for sale on the property,” Parker said in an interview. “I bought that because it was an unusual sort of purchase where we needed somebody from the community because you’re really just buying a third share without control or anything like that, which I was happy to do. But then we didn’t find a tenant for the top floor and COVID, etc., and it was decided that we should sell the property.”The building has almost 25,000 square feet of office space and 48 parking spots, having served as the workspace for both Valley Economic Alliance and VEDC, as well as the United Chambers of Commerce San Fernando Valley & Region; the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, or VICA; and other tenants during the last 20 years. VICA has since moved to another commercial space in Van Nuys.During the search for a new buyer, the current tenants continue operations; however, due to the pandemic, the building remains largely empty.
“There’s not that many people using the office right now. The Valley Economic Alliance, for instance, are working remotely at the moment with people going in from time to time,” Parker said. “But generally speaking, for the last 12 months, they’ve been working from home.”Kyle Barratt, vice president at CBRE Group, the brokerage responsible for the listing, said there is a very limited supply and availability of stand-alone owner-user office buildings with covered parking in the Sherman Oaks submarket, making the headquarters of interest to potential buyers.
“We are seeing the majority of interest from legal and professional groups, financial industry-related tenants and government entities,” Barratt said in a statement. “We believe interest will come primarily from an owner-user-type of investor because the property has approximately 12,500 square feet of space available for immediate occupancy on the third floor.”
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