Bridge Industrial Kicks Off Los Angeles Project

Bridge Point Santa Fe Springs IV. Rendering courtesy of Bridge Industrial

Bridge Industrial has broken ground on Bridge Point Santa Fe Springs IV, a 150,548-square-foot distribution center in Santa Fe Springs, Calif. Slated for completion in mid-2022, the facility will be the fourth in an industrial park the company developed in 2018.

Plans for the Class A facility call for 32-foot clear heights, 16 dock-high doors and a 135-square-foot secured truck court. The property is within a mile of Interstate 5. The Port of Long Beach is some 22 miles to the southeast via Interstate 710 and the International Los Angeles Airport is roughly 26 miles east via Interstate 105.

Bridge Industrial enlisted the help of Fullmer Construction to deliver the park’s other buildings, which sold in three different transactions in 2018. The 74,120-square-foot Building I and the 75,331-square-foot Building II were purpose built for UniFirst Corp. and Novella Plastics, respectively. Westcore Properties acquired the 74,038-square-foot Building III.

The environmental cost

Bridge Industrial acquired the 6.6-acre parcel for the new development at 13900 Carmenita Road in 2019. Formerly occupied by Univar Solutions, a distributor of chemical products and ingredients, the project site required the demolition of the existing facility and additional ecologic restoration work, including the removal of 33,840 tons of polluted soil. The new facility will be fitted with a Soil Vapor Extraction System and a Volatile Organic Compound Barrier to protect future occupants. The developers worked with the California Regional Water Quality Control Board and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control to find a solution for the location.

Despite the added costs, utilizing developable land requiring environmental rehabilitation has become a viable development strategy, particularly in markets with a scarcity of available land.

Demand drives action

This is particularly true in Los Angeles: In September, despite a tight vacancy of 3.0 percent, only 7.1 million square feet of industrial developments was under construction, accounting for 1.1 percent of stock, a recent CommercialEdge report highlights. As demand continues to escalate, spurred on by skyrocketing container volumes at the metro’s ports, developers have faced challenges in delivering enough new inventory.

In the meantime, asking rates are likely to continue on their upward trajectory. The average September rent in the market was $10.16 per square foot, the third highest in the country, following a 5.4 percent gain over the previous 12 months. As prices rise, investors are shifting into gear: Industrial transactions nearly reached $3.3 billion in Los Angeles this year through September, the highest among major markets.