The value-add industrialniche is taking off. The Los Angeles industrial market is one ofthe tightest in the country—with vacancy rates dipping below 1% insome submarkets—and the most fervent demand is for class-Adistribution centers. Of course, in our established infill market,brand new class-A distribution centers are hard to find.Opportunistic investors, like the newly launched West Harbor Capital —foundedby industrial veterans Adam Deierling andEric Ruehle—are coming to the rescue—or at leastseizing the moment—to revitalize dated and obsolete properties intofunctional and highly desired warehouses for ecommerce use.

The demand and stock of industrial properties in Los Angelesmakes it an ideal market for value-add industrial investment.“Given the average age of the properties in the Southern Californiamarket, which is late 70s and early 80s, and given what has gone onin the evolution of our overall economy, going from a moremanufacturing-based economy to distribution marketplace, theproperties themselves need to be re-adapted,” Ruehle tellsGlobeSt.com. “We have an opportunity to get a hold of theseproperties and create value for our tenants, clients and investorsby redeveloping those properties into more functional distributionbuildings.”