This Week's LA Deal Sheet
By now you've heard that residential developers are flocking to Century City, but the office market has also strengthened significantly. (It's no fun having an apartment if you don't have a job to come home and complain about.) That's why we're excited to host Bisnow's Future of Century City, starting at 8am tomorrow at the Century Plaza Towers.
Among our panelists will be CBRE SVP Stan Gerlach, who tells us Century City was one of the last markets to improve, but it's sure making up for lost time. Century City now has seen tremendous activity over the past few months. Stan handles leasing for The Plaza (1800 and 1840 Century Park East). Recent deals include Network Disposition Services, which took a nice chunk of creative space at 1800 Century Park East, and e-commerce services provider Conversion Systems, which inked a lease in the 1840 building.
Stan tells us The Plaza is building a new rooftop gym that'll boast all-around glass--you'll be able to see the Hollywood sign from there--and community spaces with seating and umbrellas. He's also working on a 4k SF lease at nearby Watt Plaza, and says it's getting hard to find quality small spaces in existing buildings. To hear more from the leaders who are remaking Century City as a live/work/play environment, along with our moderator Tony Natsis of Allen Matkins, join us tomorrow for the Future of Century City. It starts at 8am at the Century Plaza Towers, 2029 Century Park East. Sign up here.
SALES
Oppidan Investment Co, a St. Paul, Minn-based developer, snapped up the Orchard Supply Hardware location in Thousand Oaks (1934 E Avenida de Los Arboles) from a private investment firm in LA for nearly $16.8M. According to Colliers International, this is the highest price ever paid per SF for a single-tenant, triple-net property in Ventura County, and among the highest in SoCal. The property consists of 43k SF on five acres. Colliers EVP Chris Maling, who repped both sides with David Maling and Stephen Algermissen, says among the reasons they were able to achieve this record price was that the single-tenant OSH store is in a supply-constrained market with little to no competition. The nearest hardware and home improvement center is five miles away, he says.
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El Rey Properties bought a single-story, 60k SF former Mervyn's building at Ridgecrest Town Center from China Lake 700 LLC for $5.8M or $97/SF. NAI Capital's Steve Heri, who repped the buyer with Steve Gim, says the property provided El Rey with an opportunity to buy into the dominant grocery-anchored center in Ridgecrest with a high yield potential. Built in 1987, Ridgecrest Town Center,a 205k SF community center at the corner of N China Lake Blvd and Drummond Ave, was fully leased at the time of the building's sale. Tenants include Big Lots, Big 5, Stater Brothers, Goodwill, Kragen Auto and Starbucks.
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EVGA.COM, which makes computer graphic, power supplies, motherboards and other components, bought a brand new 108k SF building in the Nasa/Saturn Business Park in Brea for $15M. The buyer consolidated existing industrial locations and expanded into the new facility (408 Saturn St). First Team Real Estate's Karl Heim repped EVGA.COM, and CBRE repped the seller, Brea Industrial II.
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NAI Capital's Tim Steuernol and Rob Zaharia closed the sale of 1425 W 225th St in Torrance, a nine-unit apartment building, representing both the buyer and seller.
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Stepp Commercial's Robert Stepp closed the sale of a mixed-use property near downtown Long Beach for just over $2.5M or $161/SF. The property (1003 Orange Ave) was built in the 1930s and includes 18 apartment units, six ground-floor retail spaces and a 21-space parking lot. According to Robert, who repped seller Orange & 10th LLC, the buyer has plans for a possible rooftop billboard and potential development of the parking lot. NR Real Estate Brokers' Matt Pernice represented the buyer, Lunar Bear III LLC.
LEASES
Universal Shipping, a global 3PL services providers, signed a $9M, 10-year lease at 2855 S Reservoir St, a 142k SF building in Chino Crossroads Business Park in Pomona. The Saywitz Co's Barry Saywitz repped the tenant. William A. Budge's Bill Budge repped landlord Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance and Financial Service.
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145 E Walnut Ave in Monrovia is going, going, gone, now that John Moran Auctioneers Inc has leased the 17k SF industrial warehouse for its new HQ. The firm, which specializes in the sale of antiques, fine art and jewelry, is relocating from 7,400 SF in Altadena. The move means John Moran will no longer have to hold auctions off-site. The facility will consolidate the firm's offices, showroom, warehouse and auction site. NAI Capital's Marie Taylor repped John Moran in the 10-year lease.
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Cuddle Barn Inc, which makes musical and animated plush toys, leased a 36k SF building in the City of Commerce (2839 Tanager Ave). The lease consideration is $1.24M. Heger Industrial’s Stephan Ktorza and Philip Dray repped the tenant, and Colliers' Steve Calhoun and Phil Norton repped the landlord.
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Instrument & Value Services Co leased a 35k SF building on 1.3 acres in Paramount (6851-6853 Walthall Way). Heger Industrial’s Jack Whalen along with Patrick Fitzgerald and Curt Stanton with Paine Wetzel Associates repped both sides in the $1.6M deal.
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Michael Pakravan of Kennedy Wilson's brokerage group represented Jersey Mike’s Subs on three leases throughout Greater LA. They include a 1,200 SF store within a mixed-use multifamily and retail complex in DTLA (801 S Hope St), where Kennedy Wilson's Lee Shapiro and Justin Weiss repped landlord Wood Partners. The sandwich shop also leased 1,200 SF at 1603 Wilshire Blvd in MacArthur Park from Wilshire Union LP, and 1,700 SF in the Mountaingate Shopping Center at 1197 E Los Angeles Ave in Simi Valley from Mountaingate TT, LLC. Fred Leeds Properties' Jordan Wheeler and CBRE's Scott Siegel and Lisa Engel, respectively, represented the landlords.
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The United Farm Workers Foundation leased 500 SF at 3002 Whittier Blvd in LA. Todd Nathanson and Dimas Rangel of illi Commercial Real Estate repped both sides.
FINANCE
George Smith Partners arranged $30.7M in construction financing for three separate multifamily developments in Koreatown, including a $14.5M construction loan to Elite Real Estate for the development of a 65-unit apartment community at 833 Harvard Blvd (above). The others: $13M, including $1.2M in preferred equity from a crowdsourcing firm, for Index Realty's development of a 40-unit condo project slated to break ground this month at 1101 S Harvard, and $3.2M for Elite to build a 12-unit condo building at 305 S Ardmore Ave. The financings were 80%, 75%, and 82% loan-to-cost, according to Jonathan Lee, who arranged the loans with assistance from Adam Candler.
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Hunt Mortgage Group refinanced an eight-property portfolio in the South Bay using Fannie Mae Choice Refinance facilities, for a total funding of $160M. The early rate-lock deals include a $39M loan for the 160-unit Crystal Cove Beach Resort in Hermosa Beach; $30M for the 149-unit Copa Pacific Apartments in Torrance; and $21M each for the 100-unit Peppertree Apartments in Hermosa Beach and the 95-unit Beachbrook Village Apartments in Redondo Beach. The borrower is a SoCal private investor. Adam Leiden, Krage Olrich, Matt Olrich and Richard Olrich from Hunt's San Rafael office sourced and processed the loans.
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Mission Capital Advisors' Debt & Equity Finance Group secured 23 separate loans totaling $309M to refi a diverse portfolio of real estate assets owned by The Seligman Group, a San Francisco-based firm. The long-term loans are all IO for the entire term. The 23 assets include 11 multifamily properties in LA totaling 817 units, which received an $80M Freddie Mac loan originated by Walker & Dunlop. The portfolio also includes 12 commercial properties (retail, industrial, flex and office) in Orange County and San Francisco. The Mission Capital team included Jordan Ray, Ari Hirt, Gregg Applefield, Steven Buchwald, Jamie Matheny and Eugene Shevaldin in the New York and Newport Beach offices.
