Vistar, Nortek Deals Top $22M

Rob Fuelling, director of marketing for downtown Los Angeles-based IDS, reports that Vistar has scheduled a Feb. 1 occupancy of its new area headquarters in the Fairwest Industrial Park at 16639 E. Gale Ave. Term of the lease is 10 years. Fuelling and David Smith of IDS, along with John Hollingworth and Darla Longo of CB Richard Ellis, represented Gale Julian LLC, the property owner. Vistar was represented by Craig Nedderman of Fischer & Co. of Dallas.

The Vistar lease raises occupancy to 100% at the 386,000-sf Fairwest Industrial Park, which is part of a 1.5 million-sf portfolio of industrial properties acquired by IDS for its partners in 2003. The bulk of the portfolio is located in Los Angeles County. Vistar's new facility is a concrete tilt-up structure featuring 24-foot minimum interior clearance, dock high loading and 18,000 sf of office space. Fuelling notes that the building offers difficult to find features for a structure of its size, including major refrigeration, freezer and dry goods storage space.

In the Vernon transaction, Rhode Island-based Nortek Inc. sold its 180,000-sf industrial facility at 1946 E 46th St. to Xebec LLC. Nortek's subsidiary Jensen Inc, a manufacturer of medicine cabinets and mailboxes for apartments and office buildings, will lease back the facility for three years. Bart Pucci of CB Richard Ellis, who represented Nortek says that the market for land or investment properties in Vernon is even tighter than it is in many parts of Los Angeles because city is now acquiring any significant property that comes on the market for sale in an effort to guarantee future uses will be manufacturing.

In a third recent industrial deal, in Wilmington, Gold Point Transportation, Inc has leased 5.8 acres of vacant land at 1621 E. Opp Street from Opp Street LLC for five years in a deal valued at $3.1 million. Joe Ceske of NAI Capital Commercial, who represented the tenant, says that Gold Point will use the improved site for the storage of containers, trucks and other equipment after improvements have been completed that include paving, lighting and fencing of the property. Opp Street LLC was represented by John McKeown of Coldwell Banker Commercial.