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TORRANCE, CA-With Port of Los Angeles traffic estimated to triple, in light of the devastation of fellow port city New Orleans, there is a great need to expand the base of modern industrial facilities to fill requirements of third party logistics companies. San Francisco-based AMB Property Corp. is among the developers intent on filling those space needs.The firm has undertaken work on a $29-million project in Los Angeles' South Bay area. As part of the project, the firm will demolish part of an existing 250,000-sf building in Torrance. The property is located on 18 acres at 1000 W. Francisco St. and will be a 298,000-sf modern logistics facility. It will be completed during the first quarter of 2006.Known as the AMB Layline Distribution Center, the property is part of a growing industrial portfolio owned by AMB. "We have been expanding our platform locally and have more than three million sf in our development pipeline in the Los Angeles area alone," says Kim B. Snyder, AMB's senior vice president, development west.Whittier-based Oltmans Construction Co. is helping reposition the property. Part of the repositioning includes development of a new 48,000-sf building. The property will include 52 new dock-high truck positions, a 32-foot clear height, a 133-foot deep concrete truck court, and more than 220 trailer parking spaces, among other amenities, according to Charlie Roy, vice president of Oltmans who oversees the company's special projects division."With the lack of vacant buildable land in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties, many investors/developers have been repositioning and upgrading older buildings to better serve the needs of modern warehousing and distribution users," Roy says.The marketing team on the project includes Jim Biondi, Terry Reitz, Gerald Kim, Frank Hillebrand and John Lasiter, all of Grubb & Ellis.