Staley Point Capital and Bain Capital Real Estate aren’t letting a slow commercial market hinder them from executing their business plan.
The firms’ joint venture sold two industrial properties — one in Santa Fe Springs, the other in the Orange County city of Brea — for a combined $54 million, or about $339 per square foot, according to a release. The buyer was not disclosed.
Staley and Bain bought the buildings for a combined $35.3 million, or about $220 per square foot, in 2021, as part of their strategy to expand their industrial holdings across Los Angeles and Orange County and then renovate the buildings.
The firms sold 331 Cliffwood Park Street in Brea and 10907 Painter Avenue in Santa Fe Springs, which together total about 160,000 square feet. The sale price represents a 53 percent gain on the properties.
Staley and Bain went on a shopping spree for industrial properties in 2021, buying a 135,000-square-foot warehouse in Torrance, a 132,000-square-foot property in Commerce and land in the San Fernando Valley.
The fix-and-flip strategy has worked for Staley and Bain in the past. In January 2022, the firms bought a cold storage warehouse at 12065 Pike Street in Santa Fe Springs for $35 million. Six months later, the duo sold the warehouse for $85 million.
“We will continue to seek out hyper-infill industrial assets and land sites in top-tier markets,” Eric Staley, an executive at Staley Point Capital, said in a statement.
L.A.’s industrial market has cooled over the last year, as rising interest rates have slowed acquisitions compared to the buying frenzy of 2021.
Vacancy rates widened to 1.5 percent across Los Angeles County in the second quarter, according to CBRE, compared to 0.6 percent in the second quarter of last year.
Industrial properties have also been trading at a higher price on a square footage basis, compared to offices, which have been heavily impacted by remote work.
In January, Healthcare Property Advisors bought its 288,000-square-foot campus in Brea for $278 per square foot. And in July, Blackstone’s EQ Office sold an office campus in the Orange County city of Costa Mesa for about $165 per square foot.