LOS ANGELES — JLL has named Tony Morales as brokerage lead in the Los Angeles region. This area contains about 80 brokers across six offices. Morales’ expanded role will allow him to set the strategic direction for the Los Angeles-area brokerage business and oversee these offices. Morales, a 25-year commercial real estate veteran, will also continue in his role as JLL Los Angeles’ managing director, where he specializes in office properties. Prior to JLL, Morales worked with several high-profile companies, including Yahoo!, DIRECTV, Boston Consulting Group, Electronic Arts, William Morris Endeavor and Morrison & Foerster.
CALABASAS, CALIF. — Calabasas-based Marcus & Millichap has named nine senior vice presidents of investments and one executive vice president of investments. Alvin Mansour was named executive vice president. Senior vice president promotions include Eduardo Cerna, a multifamily specialist in Palo Alto, California; Jerry Goldstein, a retail specialist in Houston, Texas; Douglas Mandel, an office and industrial specialist in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Richard Ringer, a multifamily specialist in Los Angeles; Steven Siegel, an institutional retail and net-lease specialist in New York City; Mark Taylor, an institutional retail and net-lease specialist in Philadelphia; Dean Zang, an institutional and retail net-lease specialist in Washington, D.C.; Christopher Zorbas, an institutional and multifamily specialist in San Diego; and Alex Zylberglait, an office and industrial specialist in Miami.
LONG BEACH, CALIF. — Greenlaw Partners has acquired One World Trade Center, a 575,000-square-foot office building in Long Beach, for $105 million, according to the Los Angeles Times. The 27-story office building is located at 601 W. Ocean Blvd. One World Trade was built in 1989. It is the tallest building in Long Beach. The Class A building features the World Trade Center Heliport helipad on its roof. The structure is also attached to the 20-story Hilton Long Beach through its two-story retail plaza. The Hilton was not included in this transaction. Notable tenants at the building include the Food and Drug Administration, Morgan Stanley and law firm Ford, Walker, Haggerty & Behar. The building is situated near the Pike at Rainbow Harbor & City Place Shopping Center. The seller, SteelWave, purchased the tower for $148.9 million in 2007 at the peak of the market. The firm operated as Legacy Partners at the time. The company made significant improvements to the tower’s common areas and lobby. One World Trade was 88 percent occupied when it was purchased by Legacy. As of today, there are 37 office units listed as available for lease on LoopNet, with a listed monthly rental rate …
After disappointing national GDP results early this year, we’ve received great reports on jobs, housing, auto sales, personal income and construction, suggesting the economy is improving. National job growth has seen a 12-month positive, record-breaking streak, while consumer confidence remains strong. Consumer spending is also likely to remain strong in the coming months, supported by high savings, rising house prices and a tightening labor market. This has led the retail market to continue its improvement with demand driven, in part, by high employment rates and consumer spending. Retailers are continuing to grow and progress with multiple small construction and proposed projects throughout Orange County. The local market finished last quarter with decreasing vacancy rates that ended at 4.4 percent. The Orange County retail market has seen a vacancy rate decline over the past 12 months that began at 4.9 percent and finished last quarter at 4.4 percent. Average rental rates have performed just the opposite to vacancy declines. We’ve seen a rise in the past four quarters to an average of $23.15, a total increase of more than 3.4 percent. The steady decline in vacancy and increase in average rental rates can be directly credited to the high demand for …
GLENDALE AND PLEASANTON, CALIF. — Two California-based, nonprofit seniors housing owner/operators have announced plans to merge, creating the largest nonprofit seniors housing provider in California, according to the two companies. Pleasanton-based American Baptist Homes of the West (ABHOW) and Glendale-based be.group, made the announcement Tuesday. The unified company will provide continuing care, affordable housing, assisted living and memory support to 9,800 residents in 83 communities across California, Arizona, Nevada, Washington and Oklahoma. When the merger is finalized, Ferguson will become executive advisor to aid in the transition until his official retirement from ABHOW in early 2017. Ferguson has been with the company for 25 years. John Cochrane, be.group CEO, will assume leadership of the combined organization at the close of the merger. The merger must be approved by several state agencies. During this review period, the two companies will conduct due diligence regarding finances, operations and development plans. Upon regulatory approval, the two companies will merge, which is expected to occur early next year.
The industrial market in Los Angeles County is extremely tight and shows no signs of letting up as the trend for conversion of industrial property to creative office space by tech and media industries is very prevalent. Many industrial property owners either sell their assets and realize major equity gains with the new buyer planning a conversion, or choose to convert it to creative office themselves, garnering two to four times the rental rate for creative space. The vacancy rate of 3.2 percent in the first quarter of 2015 was parallel to that of the last quarter of 2014. To give some perspective, the downward trend of industrial vacancy has continued since the second quarter of 2013 when vacancy posted at a 5 percent rate. Additionally, the majority of larger industrial development in the region is build-to-suit product, which has virtually no impact on vacancy. The Downtown Los Angeles industrial market continues this trend of industrial property conversion to creative office. The Arts District is ground zero for this. While the rejuvenation and gentrification of Downtown is a welcome sight, the industrial users are now having to relocate, seeking other spaces throughout the LA basin. Many of these users are …
IRVINE, CALIF. — Paul Gallagher has resigned from his position as executive vice president and chief investment officer of real estate investment trust HCP Inc. The resignation will be effective June 30, though Gallagher will provide consulting services until March 2016 to smooth the transition. The reason for the resignation was not disclosed. “Paul has been a valued member of our management team and we greatly appreciate his contributions over the past 12 years, especially in growing and diversifying our portfolio,” says Lauralee Martin, HCP’s president and CEO. “We have strong, dedicated investment teams across our real estate sectors, and will continue executing our portfolio strategy with existing and new operating partners.”
Improvement in apartment fundamentals has remained strong and is expected to continue over the next two quarters. The unemployment rate in Los Angeles County was 7.6 percent in March 2015, which represents a 100 basis point decrease from the same period last year. Supported by steady job growth, more than 108,000 new jobs are forecast for Los Angeles County in 2015, representing a 2.6 percent improvement over last year’s performance. A significant amount of units are currently under development and more are expected to come on line later this year. Issuance for about 7,446 multifamily units is forecast for 2015, and issuance is expected to rise to more than 17,000 units in 2016 and 2017 with the anticipated absorption of about 11,800 units over that same period. That said, developers are likely to relax their efforts to obtain new permits into the latter half of 2015 based on an expected modest uptick in vacancy. Currently standing at 3.2 percent, the overall vacancy rate will likely increase to 3.5 percent by year-end. The average year-over-year rent increased about 2.5 percent depending on the individual submarket. The greatest level of appreciation was represented in the South Glendale/Highland Park submarket where asking rents …
LOS ANGELES — Hessam Nadji has been promoted to senior executive vice president of Marcus & Millichap. Nadji joined the firm in 1996. He served as the chief strategy officer and senior vice president. Nadji is responsible for Marcus & Millichap’s specialty brokerage divisions. He also oversees the firm’s research, advisory services and marketing departments. In addition to these duties, Nadji will now oversee the firm’s mortgage brokerage operations and certain corporate functions. He is based in Walnut Creek, Calif. Prior to joining Marcus & Millichap, Nadji was senior vice president at Grubb & Ellis. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in information management and computer science from City University in Seattle.
LOS ANGELES — JLL has acquired Wilson Retail Group, a Los Angeles-based independent retail brokerage and capital markets firm, for an undisclosed sum. The merger will bring 16 Wilson associates to JLL. It will allow JLL to provide a broader range of brokerage and investment sales services to retailers and investors in a core urban gateway. Chris Wilson will now serve as executive vice president, Southwest brokerage lead at JLL Retail; Scott Burns will serve as executive vice president, retail brokerage lead for JLL’s Los Angeles office; and Geoff Tranchina will serve as executive vice president of investment sales. The new Wilson executive team will report to Peter Belisle, market director for JLL’s Southwest region. They will work closely with Naveen Jaggi, president of JLL’s Americas Retail Brokerage business. JLL’s Retail Group is the largest third-party retail property manager in the United States. JLL’s retail portfolio has more than 500 centers totaling 69 million square feet under management. The portfolio includes regional malls, lifestyle centers, grocery-anchored centers, power centers, central business districts, transportation facilities and mixed-use projects.