Tool Seller Hammers Out Deal for Calabasas HQ

Harbor Freight Tools USA Inc., a national tool retailer formerly based elsewhere in Calabasas, has signed a 228,990-square-foot, 15-year lease to relocate its corporate headquarters to Corporate Center Calabasas. CBRE Group Inc. agents Tom Dwyer, Michael Slater, Caroline Bigelow and Andres Uribe represented landlord Majestic Asset Management Inc. in the deal — marking one of the 10 largest leases in the San Fernando Valley and Conejo Valley to date, according to CBRE. Cresa Vice Chairman Matthew Miller represented the tenant. Corporate Center Calabasas, located at 26565-26709 Agoura Road, consists of six newly renovated office buildings, ranging from 38,000 to 93,000 square feet and featuring surface and subterranean parking, park-like setting and freeway visibility and access. Harbor Freight will occupy four of the campus’ six buildings. Cresa’s Miller would not divulge which of the six buildings Harbor Freight planned to inhabit. Harbor Freight Tools will relocate to Corporate Center Calabasas from nearby 26541 Agoura Road. Founded as a family-owned retailer in 1977, Harbor Freight Tools runs 1,000 stores nationwide. Coveted submarket Neither party involved in brokering the transaction could discuss the deal with the Business Journal, due to non-disclosure agreements. However, Woodland Hills-based CBRE agent Marc Spellman, the broker who, a decade ago, had cemented the 11-year lease for Harbor Freight Tools to occupy 26541 Agoura Road, shared some insights into today’s industrial market in Calabasas. When Harbor vacates 26541 Agoura Road, it will leave behind a 90,000-square-foot void in the Calabasas submarket. “I’ve been involved in that building through three different owners,” Spellman told the Business Journal. “I’ve leased it out three times.” Spellman was the last broker to lease it when it was owned by Kilroy Realty Corp., back when Spellman worked for Lee & Associates. Harbor Freight’s lease began in April 2010 after Players International had exited as the tenant. At the time, Kilroy owned the building, which it sold in June 2013 for $14.7 million, or $163.05 per square foot. As a transitional tenant, Harbor now has many options, and it is unclear what direction the company will take. “With a year left on the lease, there are many things the company can do. They can stay for another year,” Spellman said. In the Calabasas submarket, aside from the Agoura Road building Harbor Freight will vacate, vacancies include the Parq at 4500 Park Granada in Old Town Calabasas, where 100,000 square feet of class A remains available for a multitenant lease from Lee & Associates. “That’s the other significant vacancy and one of the most prestigious buildings in Calabasas,” said Spellman, who still works the Calabasas market. Spellman speculates that the 90,156 square feet, situated on a 3-acre parcel, will not stand empty for long. He called both the Agoura Road location and building “outstanding.” “Those 92,000 square feet will be highly sought after due to the location, (proximity) to the 101 freeway as well as Las Virgenes (Malibu Canyon) and easy access to all parts of Los Angeles. Additionally, it offers a subterranean parking garage and outstanding freeway signage,” he said. Prior to Harbor Freight Tools and Players International, Innovative Merchant Solutions, a credit card service company that was acquired by Intuit, had occupied that space; and State Farm Insurance and Countrywide before them.