Duke Realty gets another 230K sf in City of Industry

Duke Realty is keeping up its industrial purchases in the City of Industry, buying its second property in the commercially-oriented municipality in southeastern Los Angeles County.

The Indianapolis-based REIT bought a 230,000-square-foot industrial building at 14724 Proctor Avenue for $54.1 million, or $235 per square foot, according to property records filed with Los Angeles County.

The deal came out to slightly less than what Duke Realty paid for a 200,000-square-foot warehouse last year for $51 million. Troy CSL Lighting sold that warehouse and leased it back for five years.

The Proctor Avenue property is zoned for heavy manufacturing and is currently occupied by RH Peterson — a barbeque and grill manufacturer.

Eights & Proctor, a limited liability company linked to Mary E. Moore and signed by advisory services firm Jess S. Morgan, sold the property.

Duke Realty is rapidly expanding its Southern California portfolio, taking advantage of low vacancy rates and surging rental rates. Less than 1 percent of all industrial properties across Los Angeles were vacant in the first quarter of this year, according to CBRE. In the City of Industry, about 0.1 percent of space is vacant.

Monthly asking rents have risen about 50 percent over the last year, hitting $1.33 per square foot in the first quarter.

Duke also is building more than 1.4 million square feet of industrial space across Los Angeles and the Inland Empire, which encompasses Riverside and San Bernardino counties. In L.A., the company is building a 4.7-acre trailer lot in Lynwood.

Its largest planned development is in Perris, where it’s working on a 1.2 million-square-foot distribution center that has already been leased to Loctek Ergonomic Technology.

Duke Realty also recently moved to deflect a takeover offer from Prologis, the San Francisco-based REIT. Prologis had proposed to buy Duke for $24 billion in an all-stock deal that would add about 160 million square feet to Prologis’ portfolio.