Hayward Remains Hot Industrial Market

HAYWARD, CA-This East Bay city has seen a lot of investment activity in the past month, with several businesses buying their own buildings. In the past several weeks, four industrial building sales have been announced.Most recently, Just Water Heaters Inc. purchased a 24,192-sf warehouse building from Foster Enterprises for mroe than $1.9 million, and Driscoll Enterprises purchased a 10,426-sf industrial building from Steen for $1.9 million.Just Water Heaters’ provides residential and commercial water heater services in the San Francisco Bay Area. The company will use its new building–located at 3400 Investment Blvd.–as its headquarters. Bob Ferraro with Colliers International in Pleasanton represented Just Water Heaters in the transaction. Steve Kapp and Joe Fabian with BT Commercial represented Foster enterprises.”The purchasing market for commercial real estate in the Hayward industrial market continues to be strong,” says Ferraro. “We are seeing more companies retain and expand their businesses within the area.” In October, Colliers brokers announced three other industrial building sales totaling 480,000 sf. In the largest deal, publicly traded AMB Property Corp. sold a 230,000-sf warehouse at 31281 Wiegman Rd. and the 10 acres it sits on to Che Chen Liu & Shu Fen Liu, the owners of Royola Pacific, an importer, marketer and distributor of furniture products. The purchase price was $14 million, or about $61 per sf. Greig Lagomarsino and James Morris with Colliers International’s Oakland office brokered the sale. The building, which includes 20,000 sf of office build out, is located near Interstate 880 with access via the Whipple Road interchange. Lagomarsino says the buyer will use their new building to consolidate Royola Pacific operations from two separate facilities into a single regional headquarters. Several miles away, at the foot of the San Mateo Bridge Approach (Highway 92), a 153,818-sf, two-building industrial complex recently was sold to the owners of Moss Precision for $8.3 million, or about $54 per sf. The buildings are located at 4120-4142 Point Eden Way, within the Bridge Point Business Center. Moss Precision, a machine shop and sheet metal fabrication company, is relocating its headquarters to the larger of the two buildings (4120) from another location in Hayward (24619 O’Neil Ave.) that it will continue to utilize. The second floor of the other building is leased to Exel Logistics, a supply chain management company, and the first floor is being marketed for lease by Colliers. Dan Bergen with Colliers International in Pleasanton represented the buyer in the transaction. CB Richard Ellis brokers Katherine Kelleher, Michael Walker and Doug Norton represented the seller.