3 Investment Firms Buy R&D Space in L.A. County’s South Bay

A trio of Southern California-based investment firms is expanding after having gotten their hands on an all-too-precious commodity in one of the region’s top submarkets for research and development space. 

Alta West Partners, Glendon Capital Management and a subsidiary of A2 Capital Management have paid $21.4 million in an all-cash deal for an 83,000-square-foot flex research and development property in Torrance, in Los Angeles County’s South Bay, which is one of the densest markets for aerospace and defense companies. 

Cushman & Wakefield (CWK)’s Brett Racanelli, Nathan Piehl and Jeff Morgan represented the buyer and seller, a limited liability company linked to a person named Huixiao Wu, according to property records. The brokerage was also retained to manage leasing for the property, at 3401 Del Amo Boulevard, which was originally purpose-developed for the Kubota Tractor Corporation in the early 1990s. Wu’s LLC paid about $15.5 million for the building in 2016. 

“Torrance continues to attract innovative companies in technology, aerospace and advanced manufacturing, making this a prime location for R&D and flex users,” Racanelli said in a statement. 

The deal is Alta West’s third purchase within the previous six months, according to C&W. That includes its September purchase, along with Glendon and A2, of Lakeview Innovation Center, a roughly 276,500-square-foot flex research and development space in Thousand Oaks, for $29.4 million. 

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.