Developers Take on Challenging Sites

LOS ANGELES—Bridge Development has purchased a 10-acre site in Santa Fe Springs with plans to develop a three-building industrial property. The site was a former dairy farm and came with significant environmental and geological challenges; however, the demand is so high and the supply so limited in the mid-counties market, the development opportunity made sense despite the site challenges.

“The mid-counties market really has one of the tightest vacancies of all mid-counties submarkets,” Brian Wilson, a principal at Bridge Development, tells GlobeSt.com. “Bridge is really set up as an infill developer, and infill deals like this are really ideal for us. As a former dairy farm, it had a lot of interesting and difficult elements to it on the very technical side. Santa Fe Springs is a great city to develop in, and their whole planning staff is very industrial.”

Bridge Development was the fourth developer to be under contract since the original seller, who had owned the site for more than 50 years, decided to dispose of it just before the recession. The environmental challenges were certainly not for everyone. “It was a difficult one to figure out, and part of that was designing a site plan and figuring out a site plan that delivered buildings to the market that the market desired,” adds Wilson. “That is one of the things that we think we figured out. The other part was the environmental and geological issues that the site had. They weren't so significant that we weren't able to overcome them, but they did require an extra bit of effort to really figure out what those problems were and how those problems can be solved.”

To work through the challenges, Bridge worked closely with the contractor and subcontractor who were going to do the work and curated a team of designers and engineers. The process isn't foreign to the firm, which frequently takes on challenging projects and has a stable of professionals with steep experience working on difficult infill sites, including Wilson himself. “The flat rectangle sites in the easy parts of the world aren't what we are interested in at all,” adds Wilson. “We are trying to find opportunities exactly like this; that are too difficult for other groups to figure out and try to add value that way.”

The development includes three state-of-the-art buildings, the 82,362-square-foot Santa Fe I, the 75,331-square-foot Santa Fe II and the 74,038-square-foot Santa Fe III, all equipped with 30-foot clear ceiling heights, 140-foot secured truck courts, 5,000 square feet of mezzanine space and over 120 parking stalls for each building. Bridge is currently securing building permits for construction, and will break ground later this year. The properties will be built on spec and will be available for lease or for sale. The developer has already received interest from potential tenants and buyers for the site. “Plan A is to lease the buildings, but the size of the buildings lend themselves very well to owners/users, so the buildings will be for sale as well,” says Wilson. “We expect that to be an equally competitive market.”

This is Bridge Development opened its Southern California office last year, and has since purchased 70 acres for the construction of 1.5 million square feet of infill industrial product. “We would like to continue that success,” says Wilson. “We would like to acquire 70 acres to 150 acres a year and continue to capitalize on the success of this year.”

LOS ANGELES—Bridge Development has purchased a 10-acre site in Santa Fe Springs with plans to develop a three-building industrial property. The site was a former dairy farm and came with significant environmental and geological challenges; however, the demand is so high and the supply so limited in the mid-counties market, the development opportunity made sense despite the site challenges.

“The mid-counties market really has one of the tightest vacancies of all mid-counties submarkets,” Brian Wilson, a principal at Bridge Development, tells GlobeSt.com. “Bridge is really set up as an infill developer, and infill deals like this are really ideal for us. As a former dairy farm, it had a lot of interesting and difficult elements to it on the very technical side. Santa Fe Springs is a great city to develop in, and their whole planning staff is very industrial.”

Bridge Development was the fourth developer to be under contract since the original seller, who had owned the site for more than 50 years, decided to dispose of it just before the recession. The environmental challenges were certainly not for everyone. “It was a difficult one to figure out, and part of that was designing a site plan and figuring out a site plan that delivered buildings to the market that the market desired,” adds Wilson. “That is one of the things that we think we figured out. The other part was the environmental and geological issues that the site had. They weren't so significant that we weren't able to overcome them, but they did require an extra bit of effort to really figure out what those problems were and how those problems can be solved.”

To work through the challenges, Bridge worked closely with the contractor and subcontractor who were going to do the work and curated a team of designers and engineers. The process isn't foreign to the firm, which frequently takes on challenging projects and has a stable of professionals with steep experience working on difficult infill sites, including Wilson himself. “The flat rectangle sites in the easy parts of the world aren't what we are interested in at all,” adds Wilson. “We are trying to find opportunities exactly like this; that are too difficult for other groups to figure out and try to add value that way.”

The development includes three state-of-the-art buildings, the 82,362-square-foot Santa Fe I, the 75,331-square-foot Santa Fe II and the 74,038-square-foot Santa Fe III, all equipped with 30-foot clear ceiling heights, 140-foot secured truck courts, 5,000 square feet of mezzanine space and over 120 parking stalls for each building. Bridge is currently securing building permits for construction, and will break ground later this year. The properties will be built on spec and will be available for lease or for sale. The developer has already received interest from potential tenants and buyers for the site. “Plan A is to lease the buildings, but the size of the buildings lend themselves very well to owners/users, so the buildings will be for sale as well,” says Wilson. “We expect that to be an equally competitive market.”

This is Bridge Development opened its Southern California office last year, and has since purchased 70 acres for the construction of 1.5 million square feet of infill industrial product. “We would like to continue that success,” says Wilson. “We would like to acquire 70 acres to 150 acres a year and continue to capitalize on the success of this year.”