Developers Are Taking Environmentally Challenged Industrial Sites

Developer Xebec has acquired a 10-acre land site east of Downtown Los Angeles, GlobeSt.com has learned exclusively. The site had fallen out of escrow several times because it has environmental site issues that made it a challenging property. Xebec, however, has handled environmental challenges and has become an expert at understanding and navigating these issues.

While the firm has experience with environmental issues, it also owns an adjacent three-acre property, which made the company comfortable with the deal from the start. “There are regional environmental issues that kept other buyers away because it was an unknown, but because Xebec had already transacted within that area, and that gave the seller a lot of confidence that they knew what they were doing,” Christopher Sheehan, EVP at Colliers International, tells GlobeSt.com. “There were also some site-specific issues that the seller had done a very good job of quantifying. As a result, Xebec was able to get a level of comfort with both the site-specific and the regional issues.” Sheehan represented Xebec in the deal along with EVP Scott Heaton.

The landsite traded hands for $13 million, a relative discount to current land prices in Los Angeles. “The seller was going in with eyes wide open. They wanted to work with a buyer that would close and understood the area, and there was a discount for the buyer because they were undertaking a project that had some issues,” says Sheehan.