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Carpenters union buys Carson industrial from Zach Vella
Pays $46M, plans to use 85K sf building for training
A carpenters union has bought an industrial property in Carson, with plans to open a training center for its members, The Real Deal has learned.
The Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters paid $46 million––or about $540 per square foot––for the property at 1010 Sandhill Avenue, according to property records filed with Los Angeles County.
The deal is one of the more expensive deals to trade in Carson’s industrial market in recent months, in terms of price per square foot. In December, CenterPoint Properties bought a 307,000-square-foot industrial complex in the South Bay city from defense firm Ducommun for $143 million — about $465 per square foot.
This year, Rexford Industrial Realty bought a roughly 53,000-square-foot cold storage property at 17011 Carson Avenue for $27.4 million — about $520 per square foot. That building is fully leased to Arctic Glacier, an ice manufacturer.
The union plans to convert the building on Sandhill Avenue into a training and educational center where it will offer construction classes for its members, a union representative told TRD. The Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters paid for the building with cash on hand.
The union already has a training facility in Whittier, where it instructs women and formerly incarcerated people in construction work for bridges, highways and other infrastructure.
Zach Vella, the CEO of West Hollywood-based development firm Vella Group, sold the property, a representative for Vella Group confirmed to TRD.
Vella bought the property for $17.5 million in July 2020 from John Lovely, the CEO of Palos Verdes Footwear, a wholesaling company that then leased back the property. The developer refinanced the property in 2021 with a loan from Madison Realty Capital.
The 40,000-square-foot property, which spans three acres, is zoned for light manufacturing. It’s unclear whether the union will redevelop the property or keep it as is.
This is the union’s second property purchase in Los Angeles over the last year. In June, the company’s pension fund bought the 508-room Hyatt Regency at LAX Airport for $75 million, or about $147,600 per key.