Los Angeles County’s top owners of industrial space collectively hold 230 properties worth $8.5 billion. The total comprises 53 million square feet of warehouse, manufacturing and other industrial space. The totals do not include properties within the city limits.
Inside the city limits, the top 10 industrial owners held a far smaller number of properties. Altogether, they own 61 properties that total 15 million square feet, according to figures compiled by Real Capital Analytics as of Jan. 5.
Four of the real estate investment trusts, investment managers and equity funds that make up the top 10 list of owners with property in L.A. County are also in the area: Rexford Industrial REIT, Deutsche Bank’s U.S. asset management arm, LBA Realty and Worthe Real Estate Group. Only Rexford is also one of the largest industrial landlords in the city itself.
Below is the list of top 10 industrial owners with properties in the county but outside the city:
Prologis | $2.6 billion
San Francisco-based REIT Prologis is by far the leader of the pack, owning more than a third of the top 10’s share of space in terms of valuation. Prologis merged with rival AMB Property Corporation in 2011, making it the largest industrial landlord in the world. The trust owns 17.3 million square feet across 56 properties.
2. Blackstone | $1 billion
The New York-based REIT is the largest investment firm in the world and industrial real estate is just one basket in which it keeps its eggs. Blackstone has consistently sold off properties in the Los Angeles area in recent years, but it’s still buying — earlier this month it paid $42 million for a three-building distribution site in Commerce. It has 7.7 million square feet of industrial properties in L.A. County.
3. Rexford Industrial REIT | $832 million
The largest Los Angeles-based industrial property holder owns 5.6 million square feet across 55 properties. It made the priciest industrial acquisition of the summer when it shelled out $210.5 million for a six-building complex in Rancho Dominguez in July. That property was 1.17 million square feet. It owns the second most properties behind Prologis.
4. Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management | $800 million
The Santa Ana-based arm of the German giant Deutsche Bank has a diversified portfolio that includes a substantial amount of industrial space in L.A. County. It owns nearly 5 million square feet of space and 26 properties. Its largest recent acquisition was in the City of Industry in October, when it picked up a 157,900-square-foot business park for $27.2 million.
5. Norges Bank | $671 million
Norway’s Norges Bank manages the country’s sovereign wealth fund and it’s one of the many foreign entities that have pumped money into L.A.’s real estate market. That helped L.A. overtake New York last year in the amount of money coming in from foreign investment, according to JLL. Norges owns all its L.A. properties in partnership with Prologis.
6. Morgan Stanley | $572 million
The New York-based bank has 10 industrial properties spread out through L.A. County that add up to 3.4 million square feet. Industrial only makes up 8 percent of Morgan Stanley’s real estate assets. It wholly owns some of its L.A. properties and is partnerships with other firms, including LBA Realty, Dedeaux Properties, and Kearney Real Estate.
7. TIAA-CREF | $549 million
Also based in New York, TIAA-CREF is a pension fund with more than 200 industrial properties nationwide including eight in Los Angeles. It has more property in the Inland Empire though — 14 properties worth nearly twice as much as its L.A. holdings.
8. Clarion Partners | $526 million
The New York-based entity makes the list with 3.5 million square feet of industrial property. Clarion has a diverse portfolio in Los Angeles County. Its industrial properties include the 58-acre Brickyard campus in Compton, a former brick manufacturing property that is home to a Best Buy distribution center and a U.S. Postal Service facility.
9. LBA Realty | $518 million
The Irvine-based equity firm was founded in 1991. Its L.A. and national portfolios are heavy on industrial properties and it owns 17 industrial properties in L.A. County. It made a move in Vernon last year with a $29 million buy of a 220,000-square-foot industrial and creative office space.
10. Worthe Real Estate Group | $454 million
Worthe is a Santa Monica-based developer headed by namesake Jeffrey Worthe. Its portfolio is mostly located in the L.A. area, where it owns three industrial properties — a Santa Monica warehouse, a flex space in Beverly Hills and a flex space in Burbank. Worthe has many more office properties than industrial. It cashed out on the largest commercial deal of last year when it sold a suite of office properties in Burbank for $1.7 billion to Blackstone in August.