So Busy

I have been so busy showing buyers and tenants around lately. I have seen so many buildings from 30,000 to 150,000 square feet, I know all of the best properties and the best deals.

Busy, Busy

Has your phone been ringing more lately? I hope so. Mine has. But I like to think that I help make it ring. Right now I am working with two clients that I have known for years, but have never made a deal with in the past. Still, I have maintained contact with them and have always kept an eye out for good deals for them. Now, with so many good opportunities out there I am showing them properties again. One client is in the food processing business and is looking to purchase a small USDA ready building. The other client is a true manufacturing company and I have been looking for the perfect building for them. Right now we are exploring a build to suit at numbers close to what an existing older building would sell for. I am also deep in negotiations with freight forwarding company on a 50,000 square foot lease deal.

Just Sold 8975 Rochester Ave. Rancho Cucamonga

8975 Rochester Rancho Cucamonga was owned by my good friends the Haiman Family. For many years they ran their business Kustom Trailers out of this property. The propetry consists of a 5,500 square foot metal building on 1.8 acres of land. The propetry fronts the 15 freeway, but is well below grade level. In 2009 I assisted the Haiman's with a Lamar sign company electronic billboard lease on the property. The lease actually put into place an easement on the property. Lamar originally wanted to buy the lease outright for a $430,000 lump sum payment but that would have triggered the Haiman's due on sale clause with their SBA loan, so a 50 year lease was arranged with $3,600 a month payments. After marketing the property for over 12 months with no serious offers, Alex Garcia of Marcus & Millichap brought in an offer from a group hoping to open a recycling yard on the property. A deal was struck and after several months of greif getting their approvals from the City they were able to close on December 15th. They paid $995,000 for the real estate and $415,000 for the rights to the sign lease for a total deal price of $1,410,000. I wish Dan and the rest of the Haiman's the best of luck in whatever endeavour they now choose to pursue.

Easy Come, Easy Go

Over the last several weeks I have been working with a Chinese company who is new to the US. Although not critical to all, Feng Shui is very important to most Chinese business people. This always makes for interesting property tours, as sometimes I have taken clients to properties that I thought were great only to have them tell me that the property has bad feng Shui and won't work. So, after showing my clients multiple properties, they found one in Mira Loma that looked good. I presented an offer that asked for 4 months of free rent on a 3 year lease. We received a counter offer that only gave one month free. Also, because my clients had little established business presence in the US and little credit, but significant cash on hand, the landlords asked for 6 months rent as a security deposit. My clients were OK with putting up the security deposit, but really wanted 2 months of free rent, which I was able to get for them. The lease was set to start February 1. With February and March to be rent free. So, as we were drafting up the leases, my clients asked if it may be possible to also get the balance of January free. (about three weeks at the time.) After all, the building had been empty for months. The listing agent told me yes, it was not a problem so the early possession was put into the lease. Well, appareantly the listing agent never really asked his client about the early occupancy, and after my clients signed the lease and delivered their first months rent and substantial security deposit, the listing agent tells me sorry, no early occupancy. Needless to say, I was totally blown away, and my clients were very upset. So upset that they asked for the leases and their checks back. After a few hours of consideration, the property owner decided he would let them have the early occupancy, but it was too late. My clients decided they would wait 4-6 months and possibly buy a building then. Was the property owner being greedy? You decide. He certainly killed the deal and lost out on hundreds of thousands of dollars of income. This building has been empty for many months, and may now sit empty for many more, because he didn't want to give an extra three weeks early occupancy. What do you think?

Just Sold

8975 Rochester Ave., Rancho Cucamonga, CA

This property featured a +/- 5,500 square foot metal building on a+/- 1.78 Acre total lot area. I represented the seller. The sale price was $1,410,000.00

This was a unique transaction in that it included an income producing easement lease from Lamar Sign Company. (The property fronts the 15 freeway and has a new 50 year lease in place with a new digital billboard.) The buyers paid extra to have the lease included.

The buyers will use the property as a recycling facility. They had to obtain a special use permit from the City, which took some work, but which they were finally able to obatin.

Special thanks to Alex Garcia of Marcus & Millichap who represented the Buyer.

Thanks For Visiting

If you are visiting this Blog for the first time chances are you received an e-mail from me. I have been using e-mail blasts as a means to reach out to the industrial property community for about a year now. Every week I work on adding more e-mail addresses to my database. I now have about 1200 e-mail addresses that I regularly send to. I try to limit my messages to only once, maybe twice a month max. I do not want to be known as a spammer and only try to send out valuable market information.

You may have noticed that I use Constant Contact as an e-mail management system. Using Constant Contact has a number of advantages that I like. For example, one of my favorite features is it shows me who has opened my e-mail message, and also shows me who has opened any attachments or links. If I see that someone has opened my e-mails numerous times, or if they have clicked on a specific property brochure I will usually call that person to follow up and see if I may be of assistance. Constant Contact also allows people to opt out or unsubscribe, which is great because the last thing I want to do is annoy anyone.

I certainly understand that many people are just curious about what is going on the market, and that is fine. I also understand that timing is critical in the real estate game and that it helps to send out messages once a month to stay top of mind.

I probably do not update this blog as much as I should. For me, it is more like a digital resume where people can go to learn a little more about me.

Thanks for stopping by.

Mitch

Four Small Leases Completed in August

This month I have been fortunate enough to complete four Lease transactions. Details are as follows:

14762 Central Ave. Chino
6,100 Square Feet
2 year sub lease
I represented the Sub-Lessor

13653 Central Ave. Chino
13,380 Square Feet
4 year lease
I represented the Lessee

7240 Sycamore Ave. Riverside
21,928 Square Feet
3 year lease
I represented the Lessor

2036 Francis St. Ontario
5,247 Square Feet
3 year lease renewal
I represented the Lessee