LBA Realty records biggest industrial purchase of March

The 266K sf warehouse complex in Vernon was acquired from a joint venture

2652 Long Beach Avenue in Vernon
2652 Long Beach Avenue in Vernon

The sale of an 11-acre industrial site in Vernon came in as the most expensive industrial sale of last month, and one of the most expensive so far this year in Los Angeles.

Irvine-based LBA Realty paid a joint venture of Barings (formerly Cornerstone Real Estate Advisors) and local partner Dedeaux Properties nearly $58 million, around $217-per-square-foot. The sprawling warehouse property is located at 2652 Long Beach Avenue, according to property records.

The sale price is nearly double the $32.3 million the joint venture paid for the property in 2014. The 11-acre, 266,000-square-foot site includes three buildings with just over six-acres of warehouse space. Current tenants include a produce and dairy distributor.

LBA adds the property to its industrial-heavy portfolio worth around $6.3 billion. Industrial properties make up around three quarters of its portfolio and make up around 56 percent of its value.

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Dedeaux Properties was founded by legendary University of Southern California baseball coach Rod Dedeaux and specializes in industrial properties, while Barings is a global investor based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Dedeaux has partnered with other large investors before, including Morgan Stanley, one of the largest industrial landlords in Los Angeles.

The sale was only eclipsed this year by Liberty Property Trust’s $93 million purchase of the 400,000-square-foot Randolph Business Park in January. That sale was also big jump from its previous sale, also in 2014, for $53.2 million.

Vacancy in L.A.’s industrial market is “incredibly tight,” according to Newmark Knight Frank’s first quarter market report. The average asking rent is at an all-time high, up 5.4 percent from a year ago.
It is also about 12 percent higher than the peak reached last cycle in 2008.