BKM Capital Pays $70M for San Diego Asset

February 29, 2024

Industrial Brokerage News San DiegoMoreWest

Canyon Industrial Center will undergo a multimillion-dollar makeover.

Canyon Industrial Center in San Diego will soon undergo a $1.7 million capital improvements program. *Image courtesy of BKM Capital Partners*

BKM Capital Partners has once again added to its West Coast industrial portfolio with the $70.2 million acquisition of Canyon Industrial Center, a 13-building, 198,728-square-foot Class B light industrial park located in San Diego’s Kearny Mesa area. The seller was the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association, according to CommercialEdge data. The park is 99 percent occupied and BKM is eyeing a $1.7 million repositioning plan.

Cushman & Wakefield worked for the seller, with the team including Executive Vice Chairmen Jeff Cole and Jeff Chiate, alongside Vice Chairman Bryce Aberg, while BKM had in-house representation.

Opportunities, upgrades at a San Diego industrial park

Completed in 1979, Canyon Industrial Center occupies 16.2 acres and 31 percent of it is office space. Rentable units range from 552 to 18,953 square feet, and are leased to a mix of small bay construction, utility, home design and health-care companies. The buildings themselves include 14- to 20-foot clear heights, and the campus totals 56 grade-level and seven dock-high loading doors.

Located at 9424-9560 Chesapeake Drive, Canyon Industrial Center is within 4 miles of three separate onramps to interstates 8, 15 and 805, while downtown San Diego is located 9 miles to the south.

One of the entrances to Canyon Industrial Center, which has 13 buildings and came online in 1979. *Image courtesy of BKM Capital Partners*

As part of BKM’s multimillion-dollar plan, the firm intends to bring the entire property up to Class A standards through improvements in roofing, signage, paint, HVAC systems and parking lots. The firm also plans to redevelop to larger units totaling 32,000 square feet into four small-bay units averaging some 8,000 square feet.

On the management front, the company plans to replace CBRE, the park’s third-party facilities and leasing manger, with its own team, to be based inside a currently vacant unit.

According to BKM, the renovations are motivated in part by a desire to fix a 30 percent deficiency in rents that it has detected at the park, with 92 percent of existing leases slated to roll over during the firm’s intended hold period. More than 500 industrial tenants have been displaced from the Sorrento Mesa and Sorrento Valley submarkets, said BKM CEO Brian Malliet in prepared remarks. This came at a time when the city’s Central County area had a vacancy rate of just 2.7 percent, data derived from Cushman & Wakefield’s most recent market update.

In the same vein, the firm intends to transition the park’s rent structures from industrial gross leases to triple net.

BKM’s West Coast campus build-up

BKM’s purchase of Canyon Industrial Center is the latest addition to the Newport Beach-based firm’s portfolio of campuses following a joint venture with StepStone Real Estate. As part of the new partnership, the latter will also focus on investing in additional small and mid-bay industrial properties around the Western U.S.

Earlier this month, BKM bought Airport Way Corporate Park, a three-building, 140,693-square-foot property in Portland, Ore. Back in January, the firm grew its presence in Phoenix and Silicon Valley with a $79 million purchase of three industrial parks totaling 387,510 square feet.