New Industrial Fund Buys Inaugural Property

CITY OF INDUSTRY, CA-A venture launched late last year by a former Daum Commercial Real Estate broker to acquire Los Angeles-area industrial properties bought two warehouse and distribution buildings totaling 177,000 sf for $8 million from Lend Lease Real Estate Investments, which had owned the buildings for about 20 years.

The deal is the first that has closed for West Los Angeles-based Rexford Industrial LLC, company founder and managing member Howard Schwimmer tells GlobeSt.com. Schwimmer adds, “We have a few more in escrow that we expect to close soon.”

Schwimmer, a longtime Daum broker and an industrial investor in his own right before founding Rexford, tells GlobeSt.com that the company expects to invest $80 million to $100 million per year for four or five years. Schwimmer’s investors include several top executives of Los Angeles-based Arden Realty, the largest owner of office buildings in Southern California.

Rexford is eschewing Class A buildings and is pursuing older, B and C buildings, Schwimmer tells GlobeSt.com, on the theory that prices for the top properties are bid up too high and older stock offers better opportunities. Rexford’s plan is to hold the properties for cash flow. “We’re bidding on some stabilized properties and some value-added deals,” Schwimmer says, adding that the newly closed deal is a stabilized, fully leased asset.

Rexford’s new City of Industry property is on 7.35 acres at 1100-1115 John Reed Court. Originally constructed in the mid-1970s, the distribution and warehouse buildings were renovated extensively in 1995 and 1999 to include dock-high loading, large yards, skylights, storage areas and office entries.

Trammell Crow’s Jeff Cole, Rick Putnam, and Philip Lombardo brokered the sale, representing both the seller and the buyer.