Escrow Closes on New Needham Ranch Land

Trammell Crow and Clarion Partners announced mid-May that they are in the throes of closing escrow on a 137-acre piece of real estate at Center at Needham Ranch that will pave the way for the completion of the 252-acre industrial park’s second phase. The additional acreage will underly five or six more buildings at the Santa Clarita Valley business ranch, located down Route 14 from Burbank-based Walt Disney Co.’s 890-acre Golden Oak Ranch, an entertainment production property. “We are pleased to have closed escrow on the second and final phase of land for our state-of-the art industrial park,” said John Balestra, principal with Trammell Crow’s SoCal – Los Angeles Business Unit. “As one of the largest undeveloped fully entitled industrial development sites in Southern California, we are looking forward to proceeding with the second and final phase of this long-planned development.” CBRE’s Craig Peters and Doug Sonderegger, the brokers handling leasing on the project, also transacted the land sale. In January, Peters, who is based out of CBRE’s Glendale office, told the Business Journal that the Center at Needham Ranch is designed to attract entertainment and ecommerce tenants. He also explained that the phase II portion will either sub-divided among multiple tenants or become a campus for one prime tenant. The Center at Needham Ranch lies within the famed “30 mile zone” vicinity of Hollywood film and TV production with freeway access to the 5 and 210. In a statement, the developers spoke about the lack of inventory around Los Angeles proper for such industrial-sized production or distribution spaces. Clarion Partners Senior Vice President Michael Marrone said: “There are many advantages to businesses operating in the city of Santa Clarita, including a lower cost of doing business, a tax incentive credit program, film and television production credits, and research and development tax credits.” An entertainment-adjacent company — stage lighting equipment supplier Illumination Dynamics — was the first tenant to set up shop at the Center at Needham Ranch, absorbing 67,000 square feet at 21335 Needham Ranch Parkway. Prior to the recent move, Illumination Dynamics was based in the city of San Fernando. The Center — which phase I area spans 900,000 square feet across six buildings ranging in size from 70,000 to 210,000 square feet — began construction in late 2017 after a decades-long incubation period which saw many ups and downs, including the Great Recession, impede its development. The project ramped up post-recession once Trammell Crow and Clarion got involved. Construction on the second phase, which is fully entitled for up to 2.5 million square feet, is still on track to launch this summer.