Owner-User Sale Closes in Five Days

LOS ANGELES-The buyer of a 19,251-sf light industrial building at 5877 Rodeo Rd. that has been converted to creative space plans to occupy part of the space and grow into the rest, according to Colliers International. Owen Fileti in the West Los Angeles office of Colliers International tells GlobeSt.com that the sale closed within five days after the opening of escrow.

Fileti, who negotiated the sale along with Steve Sendor of Colliers, says that the new owner,Cienaga West Inc., is a commercial cleaning firm that plans to use the building as flex space. The small office build-out will continue be used as office space, while the creative office space and warehouse portion of the property will be used for storing the buyer's business supplies and managing the business, Fileti explains.

The property is adjacent to Culver City, where large amounts of industrial space have been converted for use as creative office space by advertising agencies, architectural firms and others seeking something different from traditional office buildings. The 5877 Rodeo Rd. building was built as industrial space in 1952 and was converted in 2004.

The building features bow-truss ceilings, a showroom, open creative space, a client lounge, four private offices, a kitchen and abundant parking. Fileti and Sendor represented the L.A.-based seller, Tower Energy Group, with David Corley of Remax Commercial Brokerage representing the buyer, Cienaga West Inc. of Los Angeles.

Fileti notes that the property, which sold for $6.25 million, drew multiple offers in the weeks before Cienaga's winning bid took the deal. He adds that Culver City has the second lowest direct office vacancy rate of all the Westside submarkets at just 2.4% at the end of 2006.

"Options for tenants are quite limited in this submarket," Fileti tells GlobeSt.com. "Finding available office space is becoming more and more challenging" because of the tight market, he adds.