Rexford buys portfolio of ice production buildings

As the industrial market heats up, Rexford Industrial Realty is getting into the ice business.

Rexford paid $65 million for four industrial properties in Los Angeles and San Diego, each fully leased to package ice manufacturer Arctic Glacier, according to an announcement from CBRE, which brokered the deal.

Rexford bought a complex at 14243 Bessemer Street in Van Nuys; a three-building property at 17011 South Central Avenue in Carson; a complex at 2970 East 50th Street in Vernon, and a warehouse at 2843 Benet Rd in Oceanside in San Diego.

Together, the properties total 150,700 square feet.

Arctic Glacier, which is owned by private equity firm The Carlyle Group, holds leases on the properties through at least 2038, public county records show. The company also has four options to extend its leases for up to 20 more years.

New Mountain Capital, a private equity firm based in New York, sold the properties. The company bought the portfolio in 2018 for around $29.7 million in 2018, records show.

Arctic Glacier, given its corporate ownership, “provides long-term security” for Rexford, CBRE’s Barbara Perrier said in a statement.

Rexford has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars this year on industrial assets and office properties for conversion into industrial real estate. Last month, the company bought a 232,000-square-foot office complex in Chatsworth for $42 million, with plans to redevelop the site into two industrial buildings once current leases expire.

Across Los Angeles, vacancy for industrial properties in the first quarter of this year continued to hover at around 1.1 percent, according to Kidder Mathews. Monthly asking rents have increased by 6.15 percent compared to the fourth quarter of last year, rising to $1.38 per square foot.