LOS ANGELES—Seefried industrial Properties is ramping up its expansion efforts in the Southern California region. Scott Irwin has been named as SVP in the firm's new El Segundo-based office, and will lead the expansion efforts. Seefried opened its Southern California office at the end of last year, and is already operating in other major parties throughout the country, including the Northern California market.

Seefried's internal strategy, rather than market timing, is driving these expansion efforts, although Southern California has a tremendously strong industrial market. “Seefried wants to grow into a national footprint. We need to be in all of the major industrial markets, and certainly the best one is Southern California,” Irwin tells GlobeSt.com. “The markets are great, and they ebb and flow. This is a more long-term strategic decision. In order to be a national player, and Our capital partners are also driving us to be in this market, so that was another major driver for us to come here.”

Since opening its office late last year, the firm already has 1.6 million square feet of product under construction, and Irwin says that the firm is focused on growing that number. While it typically focuses on big box development, it is building as small as 150,000 square feet up to 1 million square feet. “I don't know that you can categorize it by square footage, but it is certainly big box,” says Irwin. “We are going to look at all size ranges.” Right now the company has a 400,000-square-foot development in Fontana, a 300,000- and 600,00-square-foot projects in Redlands and another 200,000- and 150,000-square-foot projects in other markets.

Clearly, the firm is aggressively looking for development opportunities here, but isn't looking to hit a specific goal. “We don't have a specific number, but we are looking to grow this platform as much as we can,” adds Irwin, who sees demand in all of the product types the firm is developing. “There is a lot of runway in the economy, and users continue to gravitate toward class-A space. There is a lot of demand for new, quality distribution companies,” he adds. “I think that trend still has a lot of runway.”

The company is maintaining a flexible investment strategy, and will vary the long-term objectives based on its capital partner. “Depending on the capital source, we will either build and hold or build and sell,” he says. “It is about 50-50.”

Irwin has a long history in the Southern California industrial market, and joins the firm from Prologis. “Working with a smaller organization was really appealing, and I was really impressed with the leadership of Seefried,” he says. “The leadership and vision of where they want to take this company was really was very appealing.”

The industrial sector has become the hottest segment in commercial real estate. How will logistics companies keep up with the market forces of omnichannel commerce? When will new supply finally catch up with demand? Who's putting investment capital into industrial and what does the future hold? Join us at RealShare Industrial on November 16 and 17 for answers to these and other questions. Learn more.

Instant Insights /

Seefried Industrial Turns Investment Strategy to SoCal

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