Ares Sells Pico Rivera Industrial Building to Robertson

Ares Management Corporation has offloaded an industrial facility in the San Gabriel Valley four years after purchasing the property with hardly any price appreciation.

The Los Angeles-based investment firm sold a 173,100-square-foot building at 5102 Industry Avenue in Pico Rivera for $63.8 million, Commercial Search reported. Robertson Properties Group bought the property for approximately $368 per square foot.

Ares acquired the building in October 2021 in a $63.1 million sale-leaseback deal from Howard’s Appliance, TV & Mattress Outlet. The facility is part of the 27-acre Pacific Gateway Business Park, which totals 550,000 square feet across two properties. The distribution center was completed in 2002 and has 40-foot maximum clear heights, a drive-in door and 27 dock-high loading doors.

Ares has been active with other industrial and commercial deals across the country this year. In September, it beefed up its industrial holdings in South Florida with the acquisition of a 230,976-square-foot warehouse in Weston for $56 million, or about $242 per square foot. In January, Ares sold a 424-unit senior living complex in Wellington, Florida, for $101.1 million.

The seemingly break-even deal for Ares runs counter to the general market. Industrial properties in the Los Angeles region have been trading hands briskly this year as the market heats up from post-pandemic doldrums. In May, Terreno Realty Corporation sold the five-building Garfield Business Center in Commerce for $97 million, more than a decade after buying it in 2012 for $52.4 million. In September, MetLife Investment Management sold a three-property, 600,000-square-foot industrial portfolio with buildings in Redondo Beach, City of Industry and San Diego for a total of $165.5 million. Earlier this month, Bridge Logistics Properties made one of the biggest single-asset industrial deals in Southern California this year with the purchase of a 1.1 million-square-foot warehouse in Fontana for $174 million.

Greater Los Angeles, bolstered by the Inland Empire, is the nation’s largest industrial market, with more than 1.7 billion square feet of industrial space across the region and another 17.8 million square feet under construction, per Colliers data cited by Supply Chain 24/7. Real estate investment volume in L.A. was $1.9 billion in the first nine months of the year, placing it in the top 10 nationally, according to Yardi Matrix. Industrial facilities in the region sold for an average of $282 per square foot — nearly double the nationwide average of $142 per square foot.

— Chris Malone Méndez