CHATSWORTH, CA—Rexford Industrial has purchased a 153,984-square-foot industrial property from 9401 De Soto LLC, the former owner/occupier of the property. The building was vacant at the close of escrow, and Rexford plans to take advantage of the vacancy by renovating the property before re-tenanting. The purchase price for the property is $14.1 million, or $92 per square foot.

“The business that was operating inside the building was downsizing and relocating, which made the need for this larger building unnecessary,” Chad Gahr, an SVP at NAI Capital, tells GlobeSt.com. “There was some deferred maintenance that needed to be addressed, which made this a keen opportunity for Rexford, rather than another owner/occupier. The size of the building combined with the fact that it has a modern 28-foot clearance height and multiple dock-high loading positions made it a prototype-class distribution building, which is what they like to hold in their portfolio. Now that it is vacant they are going to get the opportunity to do some significant upgrades to the building and really modernize and bring it up to today's standards.” Gahr represented the buyer and seller in the transaction, along with his NAI Capital colleague, SVP David Young. 

Located at 9401 De Soto in Chatsworth, the property was built in 1983 and sits on 6.7 acres, providing 700 feet of frontage. It is a concrete-tilt-up building with 28-foot ceiling heights, 8 dock-high loading doors and high-quality corporate office space. Although Gahr couldn't reveal the investment amount Rexford plans to make, he did say that the renovations will include the addition of a new sprinkler system, new corporate office space, loading docks as well as painting and landscaping the building to modernize it.

“Just like in the rest of the markets throughout the San Fernando Valley and beyond, the vacancy rate is way down, and prices for lease and for sale are rising rapidly,” says Gahr. “There is really a lack of available product, especially when it comes to product with modern high clear heights. Those availabilities are few and far between, and we are seeing those become occupied quickly in Chatsworth when they become available.” The entire valley is seeing extremely tight supply, and as a result many industrial investors are itching to break in. Last week, GlobeSt.com reported that Prologis purchased an industrial facility in Sun Valley. The 168,000-square-foot industrial property is fully occupied by Sugar Foods.