CITY OF INDUSTRY—AEW Capital Management hassold nearly five acres of industrial land in theCity of Industry to Great Dragon LLC, a shoedistributor. According to Cushman & Wakefieldsenior director Erik Larson, who represented theseller in the transaction, the sale shows the increasing demand forindustrial land in this submarket, where industrial land valueshave risen by 50% in the past 12 months.

“Over the last year or 18 months, there has been so much pent updemand for new construction that land sites have just been gobbledup,” Larson tells GlobeSt.com. “You have a lot of Asian importcompanies located in the San Gabriel Valley, and they often prefernew construction, but in order to get new construction, you needland to build. So, it seems like whenever a new site comes on themarket, it is the next highest comp.”

The buyer plans to develop a 90,000-square-foot industrialfacility on the site, which is zoned M1 for light industrial use.The property traded hands for $30.5 per square foot, a total priceof $6.5 million. Initially, the sales team expected to recieveoffers in the high $20 range, but they ended up receiving offersabove the $30.50 sales price. “We did a controlled bid on thisdeal, approached all of the appropriate developers and put atimeline on having offers due. We received offers north of $30 persquare foot from both users and developers, and we elected to gowith the user because they owned the caddy-corner property. We justfelt like it was the cleaner deal,” says Larson, who representedthe seller along with his Cushman & Wakefield colleaguesJohn Minervini, executive director, RobinDodson, senior director, and ChrisTolles, associate director.