CenterPoint Properties scores lease for its last-mile warehouse

The industrial market remains red-hot in Southern California, and at the center of it is the last-mile warehouse.

CenterPoint Properties has signed a stationery and gift design company to a five-year lease at those so-called last-mile properties, which it purchased a year ago. The 122,700-square-foot facility in Harbor Gateway North is just off Interstate 110, with access to ports and other major freeways.

The new tenant, Culver City-based Punch Studio, will use the warehouse at 13217 S. Figueroa Street — between Gardena and Compton — for distribution.

CenterPoint, an Illinois-based industrial real estate firm, purchased the vacant warehouse in June 2018 for $21 million from Goodrich Kest. It now has 12,000 square feet of office space.

“As the Los Angeles market continues to tighten, this corner of the South Bay is positioned as a strategic relief valve for the Westside and Downtown Los Angeles,” said Greg Pearson, of CenterPoint.

L.A.’s industrial market has continued to dominate the rest of the country. Firms like Rexford Industrial, which now owns more than 22 million square feet in the region, are adding to their portfolios like never before. Submarkets like the City of Industry and the Inland Empire have been the busiest spots in the country, and continue to see new long-term lease deals.

In the South Bay, CenterPoint had purchased the Harbor Gateway facility shortly after it bought a site at 2988 East Ana Street in Rancho Dominguez and seven acres nearby at 16627 Avalon Boulevard in Carson. The firm has also been a powerhouse in other parts of the country, and is building a 296,200-square-foot logistics center in Fort Lauderdale that is 100-percent pre-leased.

Rob Flores, Brian Held, Sara Santomauro and John Privett of CBRE represented CenterPoint in both the purchase of the building and the new lease. Punch Studio was represented by Gary Blau of Commercial Property Group.