Amazon Buys Flex Property in SoCal for $79M

The world’s e-commerce king has acquired a flex industrial property in Southern California that could soon be pulled into the gravitational orbit of data center and digital infrastructure demand.

Amazon put down almost $78.8 million, or $469 per square foot, for a 168,000-square-foot property at 2964 Bradley Street in Pasadena. The deal is a 139 percent jump since the sellers, Alvarez & Marsal Capital Real Estate, acquired the property for $33 million about four years ago.

Neither the Seattle-based tech giant nor the seller immediately responded to requests for more information. The Real Deal first reported the sale.

Aerospace and defense companies have occupied the two-story office and industrial building in the past, but it’s unclear if any still use the property. It’s near other R&D and industrial properties, including some digital infrastructure uses.

Amazon has not disclosed its plans for the Pasadena property, but the giant company has been leaning further into data center development, including a $50 billion commitment to government-related data center projects; a $700 million land acquisition for a future data center campus in Northern Virginia; and a $15 billion data center investment in Indiana. 

The deal also underscores the market-shifting shifting trends in the San Gabriel Valley and Southern California. Pasadena’s office vacancy is near 23 percent, according to quarterly market reports, while the region’s industrial vacancy rate hovers around 3 percent.

Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.