Torrance Industrial Leasing Picks Up Speed

The Torrance industrial market is attracting interest from tenants as buyers see the potential in the South Bay city and spend millions to own spaces.

Vital Lyfe, a tech company focused on water filtration, is establishing a new Los Angeles-area headquarters in Torrance, L.A. Business First reported. The firm is expanding into a 37,000-square-foot office and manufacturing facility at an undisclosed address, increasing its headquarters size several times over from a 7,000-square-foot space in Hawthorne.

At its new home in Torrance, Vital Lyfe will consolidate its product iteration, reliability testing, manufacturing, engineering and operational growth arms ahead of the launch of its first desalination product this summer. The company closed a $24 million funding round in December.

“This factory will be the home base for our first-generation universal portable water filtration device, capable of converting seawater and many naturally occurring water sources into drinking water,” CEO Jon Criss said in a statement. “The production line we are developing here is designed to manufacture more desalination units in a single month than currently exist worldwide.”

Institutional investors have been issuing votes of confidence in the Torrance industrial market so far this year as companies like Vital Lyfe move into town.

At the top of the year, EQT Exeter Real Estate Income Trust acquired a 76,007-square-foot warehouse in a $51.5 million all-cash deal. The sale-leaseback deal at 1500 Francisco Street keeps snack company Frito-Lay as its tenant.

Later in January, Link Logistics sold a 265,418-square-foot industrial building at 588 Crenshaw Boulevard in an off-market deal for $123 million. An entity run by Christina Wong, president of Asian food provider Golden Star Trading, acquired the property using a $91 million loan from Madison Realty Capital. Clothing company Next Level Apparel leases the facility, which also contains approximately 15,000 square feet of offices.

Now, BlackRock is looking to cash in on the action. An entity tied to the New York-based asset manager listed a 206,500-square-foot industrial building at 1540 Francisco Street for $102 million, The Real Deal reported earlier this month.

Torrance’s industrial market boasts higher occupancy than surrounding areas. The local industrial sector has a 6.3 percent vacancy rate, below the South Bay’s 7 percent and Greater Los Angeles’ 6.6 percent, per Kidder Mathews data. Companies like Virco Manufacturing see the value in staying in the city, renewing its lease for its 559,000-square-foot headquarters and industrial building at 2027 Harpers Way late last year.

— Chris Malone Méndez