Los Angeles is the nation’s top-ranked metropolitan area for commercial real estate purchases, according to CBRE Group Inc.’s recent Americas Investors Intentions survey.
L.A. outranked Dallas-Fort Worth and New York in terms of generating interest among commercial real estate buyers, the survey said.
Investors anticipate that last-mile logistics, flexible space and less reliance on traditional office and retail will be the trends with the greatest impact on real estate investments, according to Brian McAuliffe, CBRE’s president of institutional properties and capital markets, in a statement.
The survey was part of a global effort that queried CBRE clients between November 2017 and January 18. It included about 300 respondents identified as having responsibility for the Americas region, with a mix of real estate companies, asset managers, pension funds and other investors in the mix.
Investors seem to believe Southern California’s commercial real estate sector might have a longer run than other metro markets because it lagged many of them in recovery.
“It’s a much safer place to invest their capital as we’re late in the cycle,” said Todd Tydlaska, an executive vice president at CBRE.
The presence of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the emergence of e-commerce has structurally altered Southern California’s economy from its former manufacturing base, Tydlaska said.
“Today we are a third-party logistics, distribution economy,” he said.
The area is seeing strong interest from domestic and international buyers, especially those from South Korea, Japan and Singapore, he added.
CBRE’s survey found that 45 percent of investors plan to purchase more commercial real estate in the Americas compared with 2017 – a reversal of the downward or flat trend recorded in CBRE’s previous two surveys.
Investors also are somewhat more worried about a “global economic shock” that could undermine demand, with 30 percent of respondents putting it as the greatest potential threat in 2018, up eight percentage points from last year’s survey. Meanwhile, investors are less worried about interest rates rising more quickly than expected.
Douglas Elliman Adds
New York-based Douglas Elliman has hired former Mercer Vine agents Adam Rosenfeld, Justin Mandile, Kyle Giese, among others, as the brokerage plans to expand across Los Angeles County with a new location in West Hollywood.
About 15 former Mercer Vine agents in all will join Douglas Elliman, the brokerage said in a statement.
The firm now spans 22 offices with 670 sales associates throughout California.
It acquired Teles Properties last year.
Rosenfeld was a founding partner of Mercer Vine, which shut down in January after being named a “relief defendant” in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit against Robert H. Shapiro, the former chief executive of Woodbridge Group of Cos., which is currently in bankruptcy. A relief defendant is a party who allegedly has received ill-gotten gains as the result of the claimed illegal acts of the other named defendant.
The SEC has accused Shapiro and Woodbridge of running a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme. Shapiro has denied any wrongdoing.
Biola Project Finished
Pasadena-based C.W. Driver Cos. completed the $63 million Alton and Lydia Lim Center for Science, Technology and Health at Biola University’s La Mirada campus.
The 91,200-square-foot facility will serve the Christian university’s science, health and technology programs, tripling the amount of space devoted to the subjects on campus.
Alton Lim is a Long Beach resident and World War II veteran who was born in China but moved to the U.S. as a young man. The late Lydia Lim was his wife of 55 years. In 2015, Alton Lim donated a university-record $12 million to Biola.
Staff reporter Ciaran McEvoy can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 556-8337.
