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BRAD BERTON
Staff Reporter
Many of L.A. County’s leading commercial real estate developers are finally getting active again as can be seen in this week’s List.
After a half-decade during which local commercial construction activity had come to a virtual standstill, several leading developers are now building a variety of local projects.
In fact, 10 of the 25 firms on The List have new developments under way. Firms are ranked by completed square footage of commercial space in L.A. County.
They range from the three projects totaling 860,000 square feet by perennial No. 1-ranked Majestic Realty Co. the Roski family’s well-heeled San Gabriel Valley firm to the 15,000-square-foot project by Torrance-based No. 17 La Caze Development Co.
As the office sector has been the most overbuilt segment of the local commercial real estate environment, developers are now primarily pursuing industrial “build-to-suit” and retail projects.
Majestic is known as an industrial powerhouse that can continue to finance development even in the worst of times. And No. 6-ranked Watson Land Co. of Carson, another industrial specialist, now has 500,000 square feet of projects under way.
The local offices of San Francisco-based Catellus Development Corp. which moved up four slots on The List to No. 8 includes industrial build-to-suit projects among the 742,000 square feet it has under construction in L.A. County today. Catellus is also co-developing the Metropolitan Water District’s new headquarters highrise near Union Station in downtown L.A.
No. 16 Newhall Land & Farming Co., the Santa Clarita Valley’s dominant developer, has a variety of industrial, retail, office and hotel projects totaling 460,000 square feet under construction.
Miracle Mile-based, No. 9-ranked J.H. Snyder Co. has two retail developments totaling 420,000 square feet in early construction stages and plans to get a major Burbank office complex out of the ground early this year as well.
No. 24-ranked Lowe Enterprises Inc. of Brentwood has 429,000 square feet of new construction under way, along with another 200,000 square feet under renovation, at its Alameda Export Center on downtown L.A.’s eastern fringe. Lowe is also developing office build-to-suits in Calabasas for Amwest Surety Insurance Co. and Underwriters Reinsurance Co.
And No. 21-ranked Fu-Lyons Associates, a Paramount-based industrial specialist, is working on a Downey business park slated to feature at least 170,000 square feet of multi-tenant space.
Next week: HMOs/PPOs and Business Telephone Equipment Companies
