Industrial building changes hands

GLENDALE — A Los Angeles-based trading-cards distributor bought a 43,000-square-foot industrial building in Glendale for $5.4 million, snatching up one of few industrial spaces of its size in the city, industry watchers say.

In a deal that was announced last month, Khuri Enterprise V purchased the building at 1219 S. Los Angeles St. — at West Palmer Avenue, off San Fernando Road — where it had been a tenant for two years, said Mike Maniscalchi, vice president of Stevenson Real Estate Services and the broker who represented the seller in the deal.

The building is one of a row of industrial properties on Los Angeles Street owned or previously owned by Pacific States Box & Basket Co., the company once known for producing green plastic baskets for the packaging of berries. Though the company no longer runs its business in any of the buildings, it now operates as a landlord, Maniscalchi said.

In Glendale — where a short supply of large, industrial spaces for sale keeps prices for the properties high — Pacific States may be better off in its new business, Maniscalchi said.

"Our industrial purchase market is very strong," he said. "If this building would have made it out on to the market, there would have been multiple offers."

Unlike the city's much fretted-over office vacancy rate, which hovered around 16% as of January, industrial space is almost packed to the brim, said Dave Ahern, deputy director of the city's Redevelopment Agency.

Of the nearly 5 million square feet of industrial space in Glendale, just 35,000 square feet are vacant, making the vacancy rate about 0.7%, said JC Casillas, director of research for real estate firm Grubb & Ellis, Los Angeles region.

"When you're that low, effectively [the vacancy rate] is almost zero because industrial users need a lot of space," Ahern said.

Khuri Enterprise V negotiated its option to purchase the building two years ago when it initiated a lease contract for the space, said Sean Madadian, owner and broker of Magic Realty, who represented the buyer in the deal.

Two years ago, both parties agreed to a selling price of $6 million, with a monthly lease rate of $25,000 per month, Madadian said.

The $5.4 million transaction represents that total minus the two years of monthly lease installments already paid by the buyer, he said.