Ares Management unit pays $50M for warehouse

A subsidiary of Ares Management has bought a warehouse complex in Commerce that is currently occupied by a furniture maker.

Black Creek Group paid $50.3 million for the 118,000-square-foot, three-building warehouse at 2429 South Malt Avenue, property records filed with L.A. County show. The documents show Faustino Limon, whose firm Faustinos Furniture occupies the property, sold the complex.

Neither Ares nor Limon responded to requests for comment.

The deal for the property, which spans about 5.7 acres, came out to $202 per square foot in total, when taking into consideration surrounding land.

It’s unclear whether the deal was a sale leaseback, where an occupier will sell the property and lease it back for a certain period of time. A number of industrial operators across Southern California have decided to cash out of their properties, taking advantage of skyrocketing industrial property prices.

Limon bought the property for $5.1 million in 2004, records show, and most recently obtained a $500,000 refinancing from Bank of the West in 2018. If Faustinos decided not to lease back the space, it could use the proceeds from the sale to find a newer warehouse.

Built in 1953, Black Creek’s new warehouse could be redeveloped into a modern facility, though it’s unclear what the new owner plans to do with the property.

Black Creek was acquired by Los Angeles-based Ares Management last year, allowing the firm to build up its industrial expertise. As of March 2021, just before the acquisition was announced, Black Creek held $11.6 billion in assets under management.

The deal marks Black Creek’s first industrial purchase in L.A. since 2020, when the firm bought a 170,000-square-foot distribution facility for $49.5 million, records show.