LA Food Bank Purchases Industrial Building for $52M
The property spans about 255,900 square feet in the City of Industry in L.A.’s San Gabriel Valley
By Greg Cornfield August 24, 2020 2:55 pm
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After more than 10 years of searching, the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank found a new industrial site in the City of Industry, in the eastern part of L.A. County.
The nonprofit acquired a 255,900-square-foot building in the small industrial municipality in the San Gabriel Valley for $52.1 million. It was owned by Haralambos Leasing Company.
Newmark (NMRK) Knight Frank represented the food bank and announced the sale.
“We had been looking for a building of this size and quality for the L.A. Food Bank to acquire for over a decade,” NKF’s vice chairman, John McMillan, said in a statement. “The one to two options that popped up every year would quickly get acquired by institutional investors. When we discovered this building could be purchased, we wasted no time in seizing the opportunity.”
Michael Flood, president and CEO of the L.A. Regional Food Bank, added that the coronavirus pandemic has increased the urgency for the service to find a suitable facility, “as our food distribution has doubled over the past several months.”
The property is located at 2300 Pellissier Place, about a half-mile south of the intersection of the 60 and 605 freeways.
The 12-square-mile City of Industry is home to thousands of jobs and businesses, but less than 500 residents, and about 92 percent of the city is zoned for industrial use. Its industrial market has a 2.2 percent vacancy rate with a $0.83 per-square-foot asking rate, according to NKF’s second quarter report. Overall, L.A. County has been the hottest market for industrial real estate in the country, and saw 2 percent vacancy and $0.88 per-square-foot asking rent last quarter.
While negative absorption is anticipated this year, e-commerce and third-party logistics firms, which drove leasing activity in the 2008 to early 2020 cycle, are more important now than ever due to social distancing.
McMillan, Jeff Sanita, Danny Williams and Greg Stumm represented the L.A. Regional Food Bank in the deal.
