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A $20 million all-cash acquisition of a heavily vacant, partially redeveloped five-building, mixed-use complex in Hollywood, Calif. out of receivership shows just how much the commercial real estate market has progressed.

For the past two years, most of the assets that have traded hands have been core assets with high occupancies and longterm leases. This deal bucks the trend.

The project, located on a 2.76-acre site, includes three small office buildings, two multifamily structures and three parking lots. The site was purchased in 2007 and in the process of being redeveloped, but as the recession set in many of the tenants pulled out, leaving it with vacancies and no further entitlements.Read More

While the number of retail properties trading is low, what is trading is going for top dollar. Retailers, meanwhile, are infilling better locations in the Golden State.

While activity is down overall in California retail real estate, the climate itself is vibrant and poised for a comeback. Although the volume of leases getting down is less than it was 3 or 4 years ago, there are a number of large, healthy tenants who have realized now is the time to get into California’s wealthy infill markets that used to have big barriers to entry.

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Bob Champion doesn’t use the word recovery. Instead, the president of Los Angeles-based
Champion Real Estate Co. sees today’s conditions as drifting back down toward earth.

“The industry is not ‘recovering,’” he told CPE. “Instead, it is coming to grips with the re-
ality that growth will be very slow, only occurring in specific niches, while at the same time
the industry will continue to deleverage.”Read More

LOS ANGELES‐Longtime retail developer and operator Robert Champion of Champion Real Estate Co. is looking to acquire $500 million in retail real estate in the Western US in the next three years, GlobeSt.com has learned exclusively. Champion, who has not been buying or building new projects since about 2006, tells GlobeSt.com that his company and his financial partners will co‐invest in all deals and are already in escrow on a couple of properties. Champion has hired Steve Boss formerly CEO and founder of Afton Property Investment Corp as the firm’s new managing director of retail investment and development hired Steve Boss, formerly CEO and founder of Afton Property Investment Corp., as the firm s new managing director of retail investment and development to spearhead the initiative. Read More

Seasoned execs share some of the mistakes they made starting out, and how the errors made they better.

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