Activity continues in industrial market; Pro-Wash Inc. relocates.

Amid all the depressing news from most of L.A.'s various real estate sectors, we've occasionally been able to report on the relatively stronger recent recovery in the industrial arena.

In many prime Southland industrial districts, the big blocks of high-quality space have been disappearing due to a welcome uptick in user demand. As might be expected, demand from the investor side appears to be surging as well.

And if some recent major industrial park acquisitions are any indication, it's institutional investors driving much of the activity - along with some opportunistic developer types.

Centrally located Santa Fe Springs seems to be the center of attention.

The big RREEF Funds institutional advisory outfit in San Francisco just purchased the Santa Fe Springs Business Park, which includes 631,000 square feet of (mostly) industrial and office space at the intersection of Telegraph Road and Pioneer Boulevard. The price wasn't disclosed, but local real estate sources estimated that a RREEF-advised investment fund likely paid more than $30 million.

The package includes eight business parks - home to 60-some tenants - developed by affiliates of Monrovia's Boone Fetter Associates.

Company President Blaine Fetter represented the sellers. Four CB Commercial Real Estate Group Inc. brokers - Rick McGeagh, Darla Longo, Pat Welsh and Steve Batcheller - represented RREEF.

The real estate investment trust that's become the nation's biggest owner/operator of industrial properties just purchased two nearby Santa Fe Springs industrial parks. The transactions are the latest in a substantial string of Southland industrial acquisitions for Denver-based Security Capital Industrial Trust.

The two-building parks, both 100 percent leased, are the 130,400-square-foot complex at 15160 Spring Ave. and the 121,472-square-foot project at 13930 Mica St. No purchase prices were disclosed.

Security Capital purchased the former directly from Principal Financial Group. The REIT bought the latter from a local investment partnership, with Grubb & Ellis Co.'s Jim McFadden, Mike Randall and Bob Crenshaw representing both buyer and seller.

Security Capital Industrial, which trades on the NYSE, also just purchased 52 acres in Anaheim and immediately announced plans for two huge development projects.

One is a 677,420-square-foot "build-to-suit" for big cabinet-maker RSI Home Products, which is consolidating from L.A. County locations. The other is a 512,324-square-foot building billed as the largest "speculative" (i.e., no pre-leasing) industrial building ever developed in Orange County.

The REIT's Southland operations, headed by former Lincoln Property Co, veep Larry Harmsen and former Cushman & Wakefield Inc. Orange County chief Augie Napolitano, also just purchased 55- and 30-acre development sites in southern Orange County's Foothill Ranch and Irvine Spectrum areas. Harmsen said the REIT has some additional acquisitions in escrow.

Two substantial industrial-park sales also closed recently out in Pomona.

An archetypical institutional investor - Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. - purchased the former Pomona Freeway Business Park, featuring 514,713 square feet in seven fully leased warehouse/distribution buildings, for about $17 million. That park, renamed Chino Crossroads. actually straddles the L.A.-San Bernardino County line near the Pomona (60) Freeway at Reservoir and Riverside drives.

Developer JNJ Land Co. sold the park, which is home to the likes of Los Angeles Times, Lennox Industries and Safety Kleen Corp.

CB Commercial's Wait Chenoweth and Len Santoro represented both seller and buyer.

Northwestern Mutual Regional Manager Gary Farmer said the big insurer is now reviewing another pair of industrial-property acquisition opportunities - one in L.A. County, the other San Bernardino - totaling about 2.5 million square feet.

"We're still seeing opportunities where sale prices are less than replacement costs," Farmer noted. "So we feel that this is the time to aggressively seek acquisitions."

Just west of the Orange (57) Freeway on Surveyor Street in Pomona, an affiliate of Irvine-based investor/developer Sares-Regis Group purchased two vacant industrial buildings totaling 357,000 square feet for about $9 million. The buyers actually leased one of the buildings to Office Star Products while the property was in escrow.

CB's Frank Gerraci represented both seller BRE Properties Inc. and the Sares-Regis affiliate, Cal Industrial One, in the purchase negotiations.

Just west of the Orange (57) Freeway on Surveyor Street in Pomona, an affiliate of Irvine-based investor/developer Sares-Regis Group purchased two vacant industrial buildings totaling 357,000 square feet for about $9 million. The buyers actually leased one of the buildings to Office Star Products while the property was in escrow.

CB's Frank Gerraci represented both seller BRE Properties Inc. and the Sares-Regis affiliate, Cal Industrial One. in the purchase negotiations.

In a substantial industrial property lease, fabric dye house Pro-Wash Inc, committed to the entire 115,114-square-foot building at 3104 E. Ana St. in Rancho Dominguez. The 12-year lease with Beverly Hills-based landlord Crown Associates Realty Inc. is valued at about $5.4 million.

Pro-Wash's 100-some work force will move from its current facility on Main Street in L.A. at year-end. Daum Commercial Real Estate Services' Harry Okula and Norm Pawlan represented the tenant; Daum's Chuck Brill and Steve Zellinger negotiated for the landlord.

And then there's Catellus Development Corp., which recently completed build-to-suit deals totaling some more than 500,000 square feet at its industrial parks in La Mirada and City of Industry (see story page 58).

As the Crow flies: Another of the nation's biggest industrial property operators, Dallas-headquartered Trammell Crow Co., has a new Southern California Division managing director. He's E. Stevenson (Steve) Belcher, who has headed the firm's Oklahoma City operations for the last seven years.

Eight-year CB veteran Jonathan Larsen has moved over to Crow to take the newly created SoCal director of brokerage services position. His responsibilities may soon include opening up a downtown office and focusing on securing "tenant rep" assignments.

Larsen's current listings on some 3 million square feet of local properties will primarily stay with CB, Larsen explained.

In other recent commercial real estate executive moves, long-time C&W broker Tom McDonald has joined Cushman Realty Corp. as a vice president. And Alan Pyenson, most recently with Homart Development Co. - which recently sold its nationwide office portfolio - has joined Transpacific Development Co., also as vice president.

Credit due: To follow up briefly on the 10-year, 36,761-square-foot lease to Atlantic Richfield Co.'s THUMS subsidiary in the recent story about the refinancing of downtown Long Beach's Landmark Square, Marcus & Millichap Corporate Real Estate Services' Ken Hitchcock and Jonathan Karabenick represented the tenant and Cushman Management Corp.'s Tim Helgeson represented the landlord.