LA-Area Industrial Park Trades for $109M

Walnut Business Park. Image courtesy of JLL Capital Markets

IDS Real Estate Group has acquired Walnut Business Park, a fully leased, 33-building, multi-tenant business park totaling 330,946 square feet in Walnut, Calif., for $108.6 million. The property is located in an infill area of Walnut in the San Gabriel Valley submarket of Los Angeles County. Vogel Properties was the last owner, according to CommercialEdge data.

A JLL Los Angeles report for the for the third quarter of 2021 stated the greater L.A. industrial market had a vacancy rate of 1.5 percent and rents are expected to remain elevated. The situation is tight in the San Gabriel Valley submarket, where the total vacancy for warehouse and distribution properties was 1.6 percent and 0.4 percent for manufacturing properties for an overall total vacancy of 1.4 percent.

JLL’s report noted some submarkets had zero availability of Class A industrial space and the entire Los Angeles basin is suffering from a severe lack of supply. Little relief is expected in the short term, but JLL expects more redevelopments of Class B and C properties and conversions will continue to take place to create more space.

IDS industrial moves

The Walnut Business Park acquisition comes soon after a firm affiliate sold Viva Logistics Center II, a 547,000-square-foot, Class A logistics center in southern San Diego to EastGroup Properties for $135 million. JLL Capital Markets brokered the deal on behalf of the seller. IDS acquired the 29-acre industrial park with four buildings in 2018 from AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust for $67.5 million, according to CommercialEdge data. The properties are next to the U.S.-Mexico border and within the Foreign Trade Zone.

IDS, a national real estate services firm which has four offices in California—Los Angeles, San Diego, Costa Mesa, Calif., and Santa Clara, Calif.—as well as in Kent, Wash., specializes in investment management, development management, construction management and property management. The firm currently manages a portfolio of more than 35 million square feet of industrial, office and retail space.