Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 1:47PM 28720 Roadside Drive, Agoura Hills Shamrock Plaza is centrally located in the Conejo Valley and is nestled against the beautiful backdrop of the Santa Monica Mountains. This modern office building, built by the Disney Corporation features medical and office suites, ample free parking, abundant widow line, and has a variety of spaces to fit your office needs.
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 2:10PM 
2011 still has its challenges ahead for our economy. I don't expect things to ease up a bit, but I do think our economy is slowly getting better. Still there is a lot of uncertainty with new and exisiting businesses. This uncertainty with businesses are very appearent in the San Fernando Valley and Conejo Valley and the leasing market reveals this truth. Long term leases are challenging for majority of new and growing businesses and negotiating lease terms has been no easy ride.
Landlords need some incentives in this market to get their vacancies leased up. 1 month rent abatement per year, 6 month teaser rates, free parking, tenant improvement allowance and an active broker willing to work are some successful elements in this market. In the San Fernando Valley and Conjeo Valley market, there are still too many vacancies to raise rents much further. Creative rent structures is another creative element is consummating a new lease. Its not unusual to see a flat lease for the next few years either.
Tenants getting closer to lease end have been beginning to tour the market place about a year to six month in advance to see where they can strike a deal. I convey to each tenant that every landlord has a different business model. Whether their model is occupancy percentage, credit tenancy, price per square foot for rent, etc. makes its difficult for some tenants to understand that even though there is vacancy in their local market place, landlords may not necessarily budge where tenants would like. I let each tenant I represent know that the only way to find out where the landlord is will to make a deal is by requesting a lease proposal and negotiating.
Majority of the time, unless specific reasons other than rental price, most tenants will continue to renew their lease. $.10 per square foot isn't really going to make much of a justification to move unless they are a small tenant. It's typical for tenants to tour the marketplace and to have found themselves back at thier exisiting space renewing their lease for another few more years with some incentives like free rent, new carpet and paint.
For Landlords, it can be very advantagous to consider early lease renewals for tenants. Why? The known is better than the unknown and diminishes the risk of losing a credit worthy tenant. It's easier to control costs like improvements to space, commissions, loss of income for vacancy, and overall real estate costs associated with time.
But the only really way to know if you had a good lease is only after the lease is over.
Thursday, March 3, 2011 at 10:17AM Uncovering Opportunities and Creating Outstanding Results!
Still a challenging market ahead for 2011, but many commerical real estate investors once on the sidelines in 2009 and 2010 are beginning to re-enter the real estate market and plan to be active this year.
http://www.lee-associates.com/global/about-media-article.php?TeamId=6&IdCat=0&id=1609
Friday, February 18, 2011 at 5:54PM Thursday, February 17, 2011 at 2:54PM Perception is that our California economy has reached the bottom!
Are there signs of real optimism? 2012 looks like a turning point in our economy, or is it?
* Business spending accounted for majority of growth.
* Employment less than impressive.
* New home development has not seen a rebound yet.
* 2010 banks will have taken over 1.2 million homes. (Is a double dip rececssion in the housing market on its way? Banks are slowly moving inventory to prevent a major drop in the residential housing market. The next 3 years will be interesting)
Class A Properties are continuing their run up in prices and low cap rates as investment group are bidding up the prices trying to take advantage of this market. All other classes are still struggling and will continue to have its challenges this year.
Allen Matkins/UCLA Anderson Forecast California Real Estate Survey
California Real Estate Survey
Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 11:20AM Declines leveling off, some small improvements
Stabilization in office rents are to be expected by 3rd Quarter 2011. Rent Concession, Tenant Improvements, Free Parking and 6 month Teaser Rates are taking over reduced rents.
Q4 2010-LAN Office
Sluggish recovery means little change for industrial market
Leasing activity remains constant while absorption has improved since last quarter. Still a soft business climate, but the most sales activity continues to come from Owner-Users taking advantage of SBA Financing and low interest rates.
Q4 2010-LA Industrial
San Fernando Valley Industrial Properties Recently Sold
Friday, January 14, 2011 at 6:30PM 
Year end 2010 left us with conservative but encouraging recovery in the office sector. Still the fourth quarter left landlords with presistent challenges ahead. With multiple spaces for quality tenants to choose from, low market rents coupled with high improvement cost have pushed majority of the smaller landlords without deep pockets out of this leasing market. Not to mention the need for many existing tenants that has excess space trying to downsize.
The pace of lease transactions have picked up toward the end of the year as confidence in our economy is slowly recovering. Over the course of this year, we should see a stabilization of rents as we have seen a decline for 12 straight quarters. New employment and business growth is certainly the leading factors to stabilization of rents and absorption of excess space.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010 at 6:04PM The City of Los Angeles has expanded the Enterprise Zone to now include Chatsworth, Canoga Park, Van Nuys Airport Area, Woodland Hills and the Northeast Valley. Some of the incentives below:
The Enterprise Zone sounds interesting, but will it be effective in stimulating the growth and development of new and existing business in the San Fernando Valley?
From the surface the benefits seem apparent in the manufacturing and distribution sector. And this benefit isn't just for a tenant, but as a landlord you reap the benefits of less stringent city ordinances and flexibility to allow for a few more types of uses. And in conjunction to the other city monies floating around for real estate owners, if you can find it "CRA", you might just be in luck.
So this enterprise zone solution is going to stimulate the economy, right? You have a great business plan. As a new business in the enterprise zone, you get 100% tax credits for the purchase of new equipment and machinery to get your business going. You can hire someone that qualifies under any one of the 13 different categories (saves you up to $13,440 over a 5-year span), like the recently laid-off and don't forget those living in the work opportunity tax credit area which saves you and additional $2,400 per year. You have reduced parking requirements, city fee waivers, and DWP rate discounts that all put money back in you pockets, right. It does seem promising.
So the question is, where can a new business get a LOAN? Um! Are we still at the mercy of the banks and politicians that help nurture the lending incentives? Until the key to lending is turned on, it's going to be a slow process to get things jump started.
SEZ Zone Expansion Info Package
Tuesday, October 26, 2010 at 5:40PM Compared to last year, Buyers are getting off the sidelines and refocusing on acquiring deals. It just makes sense to buy a property as an Owner User if your intension is to hold on to it for the next 5 to 10 years. The market has come down significantly since the peak of 2007 and many potential Buyers that were once on the fence to purchase now see more opportunity than ever. As a stable or growing businesses, it looks like you're in luck as rents have come down significantly and the opportunity to buy as an owner user is tremendous. The SBA financing market is a driving force to the amount of sales transactions we are seeing today.
Sellers that have to dispose of their assets will find a challenging market ahead of them. Until traditional financing comes back to the marketplace, creative financing is the only option. Unfortunately as a Seller trying to unload a property that has signs of becoming distressed will certainly face competition against some of the toxic bank assets that are now being forced to sell on to the open market with realistic prices.
I've been tracking some of the banked owned properties for the past year now and those that went into distress about a year ago are now being sold. For some of the Banks that tried the "Pretend and Extend", the reality is that some of the distressed assets have no other option than to be sold at a loss.
See what Lee & Associates LA/North has recently sold and leased on the link below. 
Still On The Fence
Friday, October 15, 2010 at 6:10PM An estimated $1.4 trillion in commercial real estate debt is set to come due between 2010 and 2014. As the maturity dates come closer to being due, lenders are trying to work out extention plans for borrowers, thus "amend and extend".
Friday, July 9, 2010 at 5:05PM Leasing Activity Jumps; Pushes Absorption Into Positive Territory
Q2 2010-LAN Office 7-10
Leasing Momentum Continues and Sales Activity Increases
Q2 2010-LAN Industrial 7-10
Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 5:47PM I recently got a call from a client of mine who reported that there was a fire in his shopping center in North Hills. Aside from the bizarre entrance into the burnt space through a hole in the wall from the tenant next door (that's how they got in) we also noticed the new skylight remodeling where the fire department battled the blaze and salvaged the rest of the building.
Driving on Corbin in Northridge, I noticed a shopping center with distinct firerry charcoal look on the second floor.
Over the past weekend, yet another fire in Van Nuys almost decided to take out another building a client of mine had interest in.
Are the summer days already here? Did we forget that all this rain gave way to new growth in the mountains and valleys. They will dry up you know.
I think something smells burnt! Is my firerry theory up in smoke or really a scheme businesses underwater can make out good from a bad situation.
A close friend of mine in the insurance biz had mentioned to me that there has recently been a string of large insurance payouts for business owners in similar businesses that went up in smoke. It just so happens they lost all their non-selling inventory and business to a fire.
Vacancy has been on the rise. Recent insurance $/SF has jumped 10 fold due to vacancy. Why, the probability of vandalism is always greater in shopping centers with vacancy. Not to mention all the properties with debt service too great to carry for owners. O ya, I forgot that there are taxes and insurance to pay as well. Can a landlord afford this kind of price hike on insurance. I suppose on the other hand, if you were a landlord also underwater with a vacant building, a firerry makeover might have crossed your mind at one point. But we all know that's against the law.
Monday, May 3, 2010 at 4:45PM Improved Visibility Propels Activity, But Retrenching Still Widespread
Q1 2010-LA Office 4-10
Leasing Activity Continues to Rise as Rents Fall Further
Q1 2010-LA Industrial 4-10
Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 6:23PM "It's all about timing and luck". Being persistent and when you make the next call, you hope to find your nut which is probably going to be disguised as a white elephant. The question becomes, how are you going to crack it so that makes economic sense to the next investor?
Industrial buildings in the west valley with 60's construction were built to suite the infrastructure of that era. As you can imagine, office laboratory build out, development and testing quarters, and unique mezzanine space with double doors that drop off from the second floor and not to mention the clear height that changes from 12' 16' 14' 10.5' 21'.
Functionality is key in bringing in the right tenant to occupy a building. So how do we take a vacant concrete box erected in the 60's and bring it to functioning standards of today? "Land value son", that's what I keep hearing. Or can an investor think outside of the box and reinvent the way to look at these buildings keeping with functionality and return on investment? How about from the tenant representative angle, can they conjure up some ideal and unique functioning work space for those archaic build outs to tenants from around the world? I'm sure they can.
Industrial Live-Work Spaces (Downtown LA Brewery -http://www.the-brewery.net/),
Time and money always determine all the answers. With the choices tenants have these days, most are looking for the bread and butter tilt-up 18'+ clear height with dock high loading and plenty of parking. Fresh carpet and new paint seems to always grab the eye of those on looking tenants. And when tenants look, investors see that too.
Thank goodness for challenging times, it brings the best ideas to the table for the rest to follow.
