Blackstone Lists L.A. Campus as Industrial Redevelopment Opportunity

A partnership between Blackstone and Santa Monica-based Worthe Real Estate is marketing a vacant 1.5M office and warehouse campus in Los Angeles as a fully permitted industrial redevelopment.

CBRE is representing the partners in pitching the 39-acre property at 3880 North Mission Road, according to a Green Street alert.

The site, the former headquarters of retailer Forever 21, consists of eight buildings encompassing 1.5M SF, including 265K SF of office space and several warehouses. The partners bought the complex from Forever 21 in 2018 for about $166M.

The marketing pitch for the site touts it as an opportunity for an investor to complete a shovel-ready redevelopment project. Under the approved plan, seven of the existing eight buildings will be demolished and one will be renovated.

The redevelopment calls for three buildings encompassing 1M SF, of which all but 39K SF will be for industrial use. However, a buyer would not be constrained by the approved plan and could pursue other options, including converting the property into a data center, the report said.

Under the approved plans developed by the partners, one of the new warehouses will be a 504K SF two-story structure that would be the first multi-story industrial facility in Los Angeles, according to the marketing materials. The building will feature 36-foot-high ceilings, 83 dock-high doors and 157 parking spaces.

The slope of the property will allow each floor of the multistory warehouse to have loading at ground level on opposite sides of the building, Green Street’s report said.

A second new warehouse at the site will encompass 224K SF and feature 36-foot ceilings, 30 dock-high doors and 123 parking spaces.

An existing warehouse at the campus will be renovated, resulting in a 279K SF building. The upgraded building, which currently has 45-foot ceilings, will feature 30 dock-high doors and 123 parking spaces. The plans also call for an existing underground garage with 760 spaces to continue to operate.

In January 2022, Forever 21 announced it was relocating its HQ to the California Market Center in L.A.’s Fashion District, clearing the way for Blackstone and Worth to commence redevelopment plans and seek entitlements for the North Mission Road campus.

The property is near the convergence of the Downtown Los Angeles, East San Fernando Valley, West San Gabriel Valley and the Commerce/Vernon submarkets, which have 4,777 industrial buildings totaling nearly 184M SF.

According to the marketing materials, industrial space in the area is 98% occupied, with average asking rents for new space ranging from $24/SF to $30/SF. Only nine industrial buildings larger than 200K SF have been constructed in the submarkets in the past 10 years, and all are fully leased, the marketing said.