


14826 S Avalon Blvd, Gardena, CA

New Asian Cities
Through my attendance at MIT’s World Real Estate Forum, I was introduced to new research that is collected in the book entitled, Toward Urban Economic Vibrancy, Patterns and Practice in Asia’s New Cities, Edited by Siqi Zheng and Zhengzhen Tan. The several papers that make up the book include sections on finance, structure, Public Private Partnership, design, success measurements, industrial policy, location, and case studies.
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Commentary on Industrial Markets
Week of June 25 – Need For Space
The industrial market during the Covid-19 period, now edging back to normality, is a lesson on disruption. The most visible example are container ships backed into the sea and unable to unload goods because there is not enough dock space available at the ports. It is the same at warehouses and container yards: too many products and not enough space.
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Ownership Concentrations in Los Angeles Industrial Real Estate
Every August, the Los Angeles Tax Assessor releases its annual Tax Roll that lists all ownership in Los Angeles County. This is valuable data and serves as an important part of our statistical analysis for the year. In other words, Tax Roll data helps us find properties to purchase. For Tax Year 2019/2020, the share of Institutional ownership increased in all size ranges, particularly larger buildings. For investment buyers, more focus on smaller buildings will be fruitful because there is less institutional concentration.
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Los Angeles Industrial Real Estate

Vernon, California – Second L.A. Market

A Backwater No Longer
As industrial moves from being an operations decision to a financial product, it’s no longer a sleepy backwater of the investment world. Institutional Capital has permanently changed markets from locally owned and operated to globally owned and tenanted. It’s a 40-year trend beginning with the first wave of Japanese corporations and now exploding with institutional capital since the 2008 Financial Crisis. The influence of institutional capital makes it a different business. The driver is no longer business operations but financialization.
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Industrial Building Portfolios – In Heavy Demand
Industrial Building Portfolios, $50MM and greater, are where the action is today. Institutional investors need scale and the only place to find it, as far as industrial, is in the portfolios of National Operating Companies and Private Partnerships. Institutional Investors stand between the real estate and fixed obligations to satisfy pension, insurance, and retirement plans. It’s major financial plumbing and as the obligations grow so does the need for product. Roll ups, a familiar consolidation vehicle in corporate America, is now the preferred way for large real estate investors to buy. Unknown to many, national industrial building ownership is consolidating and almost all local developers/investors sell into these relatively few pools as a final exit.
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New Industries and the Spaces They Occupy
This October in New York City, SIOR, in partnership with the MIT Center of Real Estate, will be offering a program called New Industries and the Spaces They Occupy. In preparation, two members of the Tech Committee, Gary Schacker and Jim Klein; and Steve Weikal, Head of Industry Relations from the MIT Center had an advanced tour of the largest, Innovation-Anchored real estate developments in New York – Industry City and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Very special thanks goes out to Michael and Bill O’Brien, Brooklyn natives and second generation SIORs, who organized and joined us on the tours.
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