Dedeaux, Stockbridge boost industrial portfolio

Dedeaux Properties and Stockbridge Capital Group have picked up a Santa Clarita warehouse, which the joint venture intends to improve and add creative office space.

The duo paid $28.4 million for the 214,400-square-foot property at 42903 Avenue Kearny, according to Commercial Observer. The seller was Green Barn Inc. The property, the largest that had been on the market, is part of the 1,100-acre Valencia Industrial Center.

The warehouse will be renovated, and additional creative office space will be developed, according to the report. The property has been vacant since late last year, when tenant AmerisourceBergen, a drug wholesaler, moved out.

Last August, Dedeaux paid $92 million for a 1-million-square-foot distribution center in the Inland Empire. It was one of the largest single asset industrial acquisitions in Southern California in 2019. Dedeaux sold the property to TA Realty for $100 million earlier this year.

In December, Stockbridge acquired a portfolio of about 24 industrial properties in Chicago. The firm paid $43.1 million for the purchase in the city’s growing data center market.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles entered 2020 as one of the tightest industrial markets in the country with a vacancy rate of just 1.4 percent. The market slowed somewhat in the first quarter as the pandemic hit. Vacancy rose to 2.7 percent after negative net absorption of 2.2 million square feet.

Still, the county remains one of the tightest and most expensive industrial markets, thanks largely to the ports of L.A. and Long Beach, which are the two busiest in the country. Logistics space remains in high demand, and has even become more attractive to companies like Amazon as the pandemic has worn on. The e-commerce giant is planning to increase its fulfillment center footprint by 50 percent this year. [CO] — Dennis Lynch