BREA, CA—Guthrie Development has acquired three buildings in the Brea Industrial Complex with plans to convert the multi-tenant properties into industrial condominiums for sale. A full-service commercial real estate company, Guthrie acquired the property for $11,760,000.

The three-buildings are located at 950, 1050, 1150 West Central Ave. in Brea. Each building includes four units ranging from 6,000 to 12,000 square feet of space.

Guthrie plans to invest a few million dollars into the project for processing entitlements and speculative tenant improvements to convert the 100% occupied multi-tenant park into industrial condominiums for sale, noting that small industrial buildings for sale have proven to be a strong acquisition strategy for Guthrie.

“There has been no new construction in this product type since 2008. We're currently at a time when we are seeing strong demand and price appreciation for this class of small building industrial product,” said Rob Guthrie, president of the firm. He added that Brea is a market the firm knows well. Spanning back to the last cycle, Guthrie successfully developed and sold 43 small buildings for sale, totaling approximately 300,000 square feet in Brea alone. The firm still considers it a great small building owner/user market.

“The interest rate environment remains compelling. Our plan is to work on converting our existing tenants into owners, while reinvesting in the property,” Guthrie added.

According to company officials, the Brea property was especially compelling for a number of reasons. Vacancy rates in the Brea submarket are below 3%. There is an extremely limited competitive set for small comparably-sized industrial units, plus each unit has 18' clear heights which are also hard to find for this size range.

Guthrie's two prior acquisitions were also existing multi-tenant parks which the firm successfully converted to industrial condominiums for sale.  The acquisitions included Foothill Business Park, a 59,478-square-foot industrial property in Lake Forest, and Airport Distribution Center, a 221,171-square-foot industrial park located in Ontario.

Based on what they've experienced in the market, Guthrie believes the Inland Empire and Orange County markets will remain strong for this product type. To that point, Guthrie has sold eight of the 25 units at Lake Forest with five more currently in escrow.

Guthrie Development Company is a full service commercial real estate company. The firm has earned a reputation for tackling complicated real estate development, redevelopment and acquisitions.