Bentley Forbes Sells 200,000-SF City of Commerce Facility

The City of Commerce property is at 5505 E. Olympic Blvd. and is fully leased to Gruma, the world's leading producer of tortillas, for use in production of its Mission brand of tortillas. The buyer was CDC Acquisitions LLC.

Bentley Forbes sold the City of Commerce property and a 48,000-sf Best Buy retail facility located in the Western Mall in Sioux Falls, SD for a combined $20 million. The buyer of the Sioux Falls property was EN South Dakota LLC.

Along with Bentley Forbes' recently completed acquisition of eight class A office buildings in suburban Sacramento for $134 million, which was reported recently on GlobeSt.com, the two sales are part of a strategy outlined by chief operating officer Chad Wehba of Bentley Forbes for restructuring and expanding the firm's portfolio.

Wehba says the firm is streamlining operations, adding senior executives experienced in investment, finance and portfolio management, and expanding relationships in the capital markets to include a wider scope of institutional lenders. Among the new executives is finance EVP Keith Bjelejac, a long-time executive with Office Depot and the California franchisee of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, whose appointment was reported recently on GlobeSt.com.

According to Wehba, Bentley Forbes is positioned to double the value of its portfolio over the next two years to exceed $2.5 billion. This summer, the firm announced plans to spend at least $500 million on commercial properties throughout the US over the next 12 months in a recently launched program to expand its holdings.

The strategy will involve selling non-core assets and using the proceeds along with other investor capital to acquire new holdings in the national office, retail and industrial property sectors. The Bentley Forbes portfolio is valued in excess of $1 billion, including properties ranging from office buildings, shopping centers and industrial properties, to light manufacturing facilities and warehouses encompassing more than 11 million sf throughout the United States.