The Deal Sheet
Four years after successfully opening its first office in LA County, Voit Real Estate Services is on the move again. The six-person office has pulled up stakes in the City of Commerce and relocated—not just down the street, but all the way to the South Bay.
Managing director Ian Britton tells us the move offers not only the ability to penetrate a 185M SF market, but also is closer to the Ports of LA and Long Beach. That's a definite plus for the industrial-focused office and is a better location to serve its client base, he says. While the LA team will continue to work the Central LA region, they also plan to add as many as six more brokers over the next year or two and enhance their capabilities in office and retail.
The new office (1025 W 190th St) is led by SVPs David Fults and Brian McLoughlin. The location offers an open floorplate and more efficient layout that allows the office to expand its roster of brokers in almost the same amount of space. Over the past few years, the Orange County-based firm has reinvested in all of its offices—upgrading and making them more collaborative. Ian has two kids, and his son, 10, is already planning a career in brokerage. "He's been in the office several times and loves the vibe." His daughter, 7, hasn't quite made up her mind.
SALES
MacFarlane Partners bought a 99k SF parcel at the NE corner of Fifth and Olive streets overlooking Pershing Square in Downtown LA from Africa-Israel USA. The site has been entitled for one mid-rise and one high-rise building containing more than 600 units of market-rate apartments and condos and 17k SF of ground-floor retail; the podium deck will feature a half-acre "central park" between the buildings. Construction: mid-2015. Newmark Grubb Knight Frank's Jimmy Kuhn in New York and Chris Cooney, Josh Levy, and Matt Dobson in LA brokered the sale.
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The ESP Co, owner of the Musicians Institute music school, bought three buildings totaling more than 16k SF plus a 6,875 SF parking lot in Hollywood from a family trust for $6M. Located on McCadden Place between Selma and Sunset, the properties include the 1,734 SF former Cafe Des Artistes restaurant (above), a 20-unit apartment building, and a 4,758 SF theater building. Silver Commercial's Kathleen Silver and Kay Sasatomi repped ESP, which has invested some $47M to expand and create a center for arts and entertainment education in Hollywood. The company now owns six contiguous parcels totaling 50k SF on one block.
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Lee & Associates-LA North/Ventura's Warren Berzack and Slavic Zlatkin sold the 16-unit Villa De Fano Apartments, 9413 Van Nuys Blvd in Panorama City, to a 1031 Exchange buyer for $2.8M. Newmark Grubb Knight Frank's Joshua Levy and Matt Dobson repped the buyer.
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Charles Dunn Co's Albert Shilton and Blake Rogers sold a 17-unit multifamily property, 1520-1522 S Hayworth Ave in LA, on behalf of an affiliate of Oak Coast Properties for nearly $7.9M or $462k/unit. The sale price represents a 58% gain over the previous trade 18 months ago; Oak Coast bought the property in 2012, renovated it and increased in-place rents by 49%.
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Charles Dunn Co's Kimberly Roberts Stepp sold 1811 19th St, an eight-unit apartment building in Santa Monica, on behalf of two family trusts for $2M. The sale closed at a 4.3% cap. Wellman Realty's Wes Wellman repped the buyer, a private investor.
LEASES
American Tire Distributors leased an additional 300k SF at Paramount Logistics Park in Shafter, six months after signing a lease for a new 1M SF build-to-suit facility. The tenant and landlord, Roll Real Estate Development, repped themselves.
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NAI Capital's Vicky Espinosa, Fred Encinas, Samantha Zoleta, and Kevin Zullo repped Hutton Companies in six retail leases at its new mixed-use development, The La Verne Village (2855 Foothill Blvd). The project, which includes 172 apartments, is the City of La Verne's first new retail development in years.
FINANCING
Centerline Capital Group provided a $23.5M Fannie Mae credit facility to refi a portfolio of six LA multifamily properties. The borrower is a group of local real estate execs, and Centerline managing director Rick Warren says the complex deal called for the properties to be closed as one pool. Ana Ramos, Irma Olguin, Janine Soto, Kim Caldwell, and April Swan-Rosney worked on the deal.
EXECUTIVE MOVES
Gail Goldstein, former regional director-leasing for EOP in Santa Monica, has landed at Avison Young as an SVP in the West LA office. Gail, snapped last month at Bisnow's Future of Century City event (left, with Environmental Contracting Corp's Hilary Luckenbaugh) will focus on agency leasing. At EOP, she was responsible for the leasing of a 2.5M SF portfolio of office and retail buildings throughout Santa Monica and LA. Previous stints include Spieker and Heitman.
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Charles Carmichael was named chief information officer and EVP of NAI Capital, responsible for overseeing the newly launched NAI Capital Information Services Group. In his new role, he's founded a technology resource group comprised of the principals and managers of nine NAI Global firms throughout the Pacific Southwest region. The San Fernando Valley industrial specialist will continue to service his brokerage clients.
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Laurus Corp named 25-year veteran Doug Kiel as CFO. Before joining the private real estate investment and development firm, he spent 14 years with Makar Properties as COO and CFO.
