Investors flock to Inglewood for land near stadium

It’s only been a week since the announcement that the Rams are officially moving to Los Angeles and into Stan Kroenke’s stadium project, but already, realtors are claiming an uptick in interest in the commercial properties that surround the site in blocks lined with strip malls and auto repair shops.

Real estate agent Matt Crabbs of Re/Max Estate Properties told the Los Angeles Times that he had seen dismal interest in one his listings for a vacant retail property in the low-rent city. That is, until last week, when six parties have expressed a desire to buy the roughly 17,000-square-foot building, which is listed for almost $4 million.

Realtors are not being shy about using the stadium as a selling point.

“Within blocks of the new stadium development,” reads one ad for a 5,500 retail building on Century Boulevard.

The city made most famous by Tupac’s line “Inglewood, always up to no good” has long struggled on the commercial front.

Its retail spaces rent for a meager $1.43 a square foot a month with 5.9 percent vacancy, according to CoStar. It falls well below the county average of $2.31 for rent and 4.7 percent vacancy.

Its office market is even worse. Inglewood has a 27.4 percent office vacancy rate and its office properties average $1.61 a square foot a month, compared to L.A. average of 11.2 percent vacancy and $2.71 rent.

To boot, residential realtors have made it clear that the Rams’ players, staff and administration will look elsewhere, in luxury markets, for housing.

It’s not expected that the coming of the Rams will transform property values across the city. Victor Matheson, an economist at the College of the Holy Cross, told the Times that property values tend to increase in the streets directly surrounding a stadium, but even a half a mile away there is no effect.

One argument for the change in Inglewood is that Kroenke and Stockbridge Capital Group’s plans for the site include not just a stadium but also a hotel, housing and hundreds of thousands of square feet of retail and office space. [LAT] – Hannah Miet