WATTS, CA—Developer Rodney S. Shepard held the ground breaking ceremony yesterday for Lanzit Industrial Park. Once complete, the industrial development is the city's first ground-up industrial project in 40 years. Charlie Beck and Janis Hahn were among the notable attendees at the event.

The development has been in the works for several years. The city acquired the land for the property from Caltrans in 1994. At that time, Caltrans was using the land as a storage facility. It took years to clean and prepare the site for development.

Located at 10901 Clovis St., the 42,000-square-foot facility will have dock high and ground level loading and heavy power capacity. The city of Watts is an ideal location for an industrial facility because of its close proximity to the 110, 105 and 710 freeways. NAI Capital SVP Doug J. Golden is leading the leasing efforts for the property.

Industrial development in Los Angeles County is strong where there is available land, making it unusual that it took a substantial length of time to get this project off the ground. In a similar story, the City of Bell sold land to a private developer, Pacific Industrial, for a 500,000-square-foot industrial project. The project broke ground last year and has already signed a fortune 50 tenant for a portion of the space. These projects usually are completed quickly due to the high demand for industrial space.