COMMERCE, CA-Terreno Realty Corp. has acquired an industrial property here for approximately $52.4 million from a joint venture between affiliates of Westcore Properties and Dune Real Estate Partners. The property, Garfield Business Center, consists of five multi-tenant industrial buildings containing approximately 545,000 square feet.

In the sales transaction, Darla Longo and Barbara Emmons of CBRE represented the buyer and seller. The estimated stabilized cap rate of the property is 6%.

Garfield Business Center is rail-served by the Commerce Metrolink Station and located at 3300-3430 Garfield Ave. in the Mid-Counties submarket, with direct access to the I-5, I-710 and I-605 expressways via Bandini Blvd. It is also within 20 miles of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The property offers flex and industrial space with dock-high and grade-level doors, 21-24-foot clear ceiling height and suites ranging in size from 2,000 to 150,000 square feet.

The center is currently 79% leased to 14 tenants including Malarkey Roofing, Hilti, Jam N Logistics and US Healthworks, Leasing is being handled by the CBRE team of John Privett, Cameron Merrill and Jeff Stephens.

“We acquired this well-located, infill industrial project in February 2009 when the capital markets were frozen,” says Don Ankeny, Westcore Properties’ president and CEO, in a prepared statement. “Since acquisition, we have executed on our business plan, which included several capital improvements along with active asset management and leasing, which generated in excess of a half-million square feet of leases. The result of these efforts produced a stabilized and highly desired asset in one of the best industrial markets in the county.”

Terreno could not be reached by GlobeSt.com before deadline to discuss the seller’s identity, the buildings’ age or Terreno’s plans for the property.

Terreno owns and operates industrial properties in six major coastal US markets including Los Angeles, Northern New Jersey/New York City, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Miami and Washington, D.C./Baltimore. As GlobeSt.com reported in January, the company had purchased the industrial property at 8441 Dorsey Run Rd. in Jessup, MD, for $5.8 million. Cushman & Wakefield Inc. represented the tenant and NAI KLNB represented the landlord in the deal. Also as GlobeSt.com previously reported, in August 2011, the company purchased an industrial property in Doral, FL, for roughly $4.4 million. And in July 2011, the company acquired 670 Belleville Turnpike, a 211,000-square foot single-story industrial building in Kearny, NJ,, for $32.6 million from Saw Mill Park, LLC, an affiliate of Carlstadt, NJ-based Russo Development.

According to a recent US industrial-sector report by Marcus & Millichap, the resiliency of key economic drivers finally moved the needle in leasing demand and net absorption of industrial space in 2011. International trade, consumption and inventory rebuilding ignited demand for big-box warehouse space in key port and distribution markets across the country. Similar to other property types, recovery in fundamentals has been bifurcated by market and asset class, favoring coastal metro areas with large ports and their immediate distribution hubs, e.g., Los Angeles and the Inland Empire, and modern, Class A functional warehouses. As for the top markets the company surveys, this year Houston, L.A. and Seattle rounded out the top three, while Fort Lauderdale, Detroit and Sacramento round out the bottom.