The Deal Sheet
At some firms, bonding with your colleagues outside the office means grabbing a beer after work. Avison Young’s SoCal Young Guns recently took team-building to a higher level by hiking up to the Hollywood sign. (You learn a lot about someone in the sweltering heat.)
The group—Amit Parekh, Alex Jurdi, Forest Crandall, Matthew Wallace, Tait Gabrielsen, Stephen Woodward, Brandon Mason, Briana Krank, Chase Gordon, and Michael Ma—braved 102-degree heat to reach the landmark. (They should just build a ski lift to get up there.)
The ascent covered three miles round-trip and an elevation gain of nearly 1,000 feet. Young Guns are the firm's up-and-comers who have zero to five years in the real estate brokerage biz. (No word on rumors that their next team-building event involves giving one another a kidney.)
SALES
MWest sold the 60-unit Keswick Court Apartments in Culver City, 3902 Lenawee Ave, to a local family operator. Greg Harris, Kevin Green, and Joseph Grabiec of Marcus & Millichap's Institutional Property Advisors repped the seller. Marcus & Millichap's Matt Ziegler repped the buyer, which bought the property as the upleg in a 1031 exchange. The property was built in 1957 and was upgraded within the past few years.
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PIH Health bought the 56k SF Brookshire Medical Building in Downey (11411 Brookshire Ave) from an affiliate of WRA Property Management for $11.3M. Located across from PIH Health Hospital-Downey (formerly Downey Regional Medical Center), the building was built in 1970 and is 78% occupied. Marcus & Millichap repped both sides: Michael Lawrence for the seller and David Black for the buyer.
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Symphony Development, which specializes in student housing and college-related mixed-use projects, bought a 1.5-acre US Postal Service site (9534-9546 Reseda Blvd), one block west of Cal State Northridge for $5.5M. The buyer plays to redevelop the site, now occupied by an aging one-story post office, when the lease expires in six years. According to Colliers' Jeff Gould, who repped both sides, the Northridge Specific Plan calls for higher-density development over the next decade in this region, including multifamily housing and mixed-use retail development.
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The LA Lakers agreed to purchase a five-acre portion of the Elevon development in El Segundo from CDC Mar Campus. The site, located at the NW corner of Mariposa Avenue and Douglas Street, will be a new training center and business offices for the Lakers and its development league team, the LA D-Fenders. Elevon, a 15-building office campus, is being developed by Continental Development in partnership with Mar Ventures in the 47-acre mixed-use Campus El Segundo. JLL's Steve Solomon and Carl Muhlstein handle build-to-suit opportunities, while CBRE's Bill Bloodgood and Bob Healey oversee building sales.
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The 22-unit Exposition Apartments at 11406 Exposition Blvd in West LA traded for just under $10M or $452k/unit. Marcus & Millichap's Jerry Wise repped the seller, while colleague Tony Azzi repped the buyer. The property, which was built in 2009, is located just off the corner of Pico and Sawtelle boulevards.
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Foam Express, a foam molding manufacturer, bought a freestanding industrial building in Norwalk (14016 Gracebee St) containing nearly 35k SF from the Madjzoub Family Trust for just under $2.8M. Colliers Chuck Wilson repped the seller, and Daum's Jason Vargas repped the buyer.
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Marcus & Millichap's Rick Raymundo closed the $8M sale of Ventura Canyon Villas, a 30-unit apartment property in Panorama City (7901 Ventura Canyon Ave). Built last year, the non-rent controlled property sold for more than $268k/unit, the highest price per unit in the City's history.
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Santa Barbara Land Co bought a 45k SF retail property in Santa Maria (3596 Skyway Dr) from Esplanade Investment Partners for $2.7M. Lee & Associates' Matt Benwitt and Jim Slaught repped the buyer, which plans to renovate the former auto dealership property for possible retail, restaurant, or commercial uses and potential new construction. Pacifica Commercial Realty's Jerry Schmidt, Pat Palangi, and Mike Kelly repped the seller.
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Berry Family Trust bought the 30-unit Beneda Lane Apartments in Santa Clarita (18071 Beneda Lane) for $4.8M to complete a 1031 exchange. NAI Capital's Jesus Henao repped both sides. The deal, which is the first time the property changed hands since it was developed in 1988, marked the area's highest price per unit at more than $158k/unit.
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Link Property Management bought a 42k SF industrial property in Arcadia (5537-5611 N Peck Rd) with plans to convert the former food processing plant into a garment manufacturing facility. NAI Capital repped both sides: Nicholas Chang and Richard Lee for the seller, and Richard Horn and Philip Attalla for the buyer.
LEASING
The Ratkovich Co signed renewal and expansion leases with two longstanding tenants at The Alhambra, a 45-acre mixed-use complex in the City of Alhambra. The Eastern Los Angeles Regional Center, which provides community-based services to Californians with developmental disabilities, signed a 10-year renewal through 2026 and expands its space to nearly 92k SF. Platt College extended its lease to 2021 and expands its space to nearly 41k SF. CBRE's Kevin Duffy and John Zanetos repped the landlord. Newmark Grubb Knight Frank's David Kutzer and CBRE's Jeff Woolf were the tenant reps.
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Sears Logistics Services leased an 85k SF warehouse and distribution building in Sylmar (14090 Balboa Blvd) to serve Sears stores and customers in Greater LA. The five-year lease is valued at $3.1M. Colliers’ John DeGrinis, Patrick DuRoss, and Jeff Abraham repped both the tenant and landlord, Skypark Industrial Project LLC. As part of the Sears Holdings network, SLS manages transportation and warehousing services for Sears, including home delivery of appliances and furniture.
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Electronic Transaction Clearing, which provides stock clearing services to securities industry professionals, expanded at 660 S Figueroa in Downtown LA. With the new five-year lease valued at $2M, the firm now occupies more than 10k SF. Although the deal was a simple extension and expansion, a change in the building's ownership resulted in a complex negotiation, according to Colliers' Nathan Pellow, who repped ETC along with colleague Tim Dwight. The building owner is CIII out of Texas, as the receiver. Lincoln Property handled leasing and management.
FINANCING
A new investment firm has launched in LA with some pretty ambitious goals—finding real estate solutions for some of the country’s most pressing social issues while also achieving solid returns. But then, the real estate investment execs behind Turner Impact Capital—CEO Bobby Turner along with Dan Millman, Bari Sherman, Glenn Pierce, and Gee Kim—are no strangers to triple bottom line investing, having facilitated more than $6B of projects benefiting local communities. Initially, Turner Impact Capital plans to target education. Through the Turner-Agassi Charter School Facilities Fund in partnership with Andre Agassi, the firm will facilitate the development of 60 new charter schools in underserved areas by fall 2015. Other focuses include workforce housing and healthcare.
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Presidio Residential Capital is investing $18.7M to build a 51-unit gated community in Baldwin Park. South Coast Communities is developing the project, with construction expected to begin in December. The site at Baldwin Park Boulevard and Merced Avenue is a former church and school grounds.
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Quantum Capital Partners secured more than $22M in permanent financing on behalf of a locally based real estate investment consortium to recapitalize a portfolio of five retail properties in Downtown LA's Fashion District. The five individual loans ranged from $1.1M to $8.3M and were funded by three off-shore lenders.
CONSTRUCTION
The Dinerstein Cos is under construction on The Millennium Woodland Hills, a 395-unit multifamily project at 21021 West Erwin St in Warner Center. Designed by Nadel Architects, the wrap-style complex consists of four- and five-story residential buildings and a seven-tier parking garage on seven acres. According to Nadel project director Dale Yonkin, the suburban area requires a housing option that improves the limited walkability of the neighborhood by providing amenities within the complex. Think fitness and business centers, yoga room, 2,000 SF dog park and two pools, plus seven courtyards with varying themes and purposes. The Millennium is targeting LEED Silver.
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A cool project recently completed construction in Vernon: MG Produce's $15M build-to-suit facility. Dedeaux Properties developed the 87k SF cooler/freezer facility on a four-acre site (2910 Ross St) along the Alameda Corridor. CBRE's Jae Yoo, Brandon Burns, and Brandon Gill (second from right) brokered the deal. Dedeaux Properties includes Steve Summers, Brett Dedeaux, and Mark Dedeaux. Many of you probably have heard of the company's late founder: famed USC baseball coach Rod Dedeaux.
Pircher Nichols' Phil Nichols and Stevens Carey flank the winners of the law firm's second annual Joint Venture Challenge at UCLA. Pircher Nichols conceived the program to bridge the gap between law school education and hands-on training in the legal sector. Morgan Stanley's Kev Zoryan helped present a $3,000 prize, provided by the Milken Institute, to the first-place team which included Daniel Nagel and Steve Serna (who also received lovely gift bags). Teams consisting of at least one law student and one MBA candidate answered questions about opportunities stemming from a hypothetical transaction. Pircher Nichols held a similar competition at UC Berkeley, with the prize funded by Boalt Law School alum Leo Pircher.
