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All Forum Posts by: Manuel Angeles
Manuel Angeles has started 86 posts and replied 226 times.
Post: How To: Fund Properties Worth Less Than 100 K For Section 8

- Real Estate Broker
- Los Angeles, CA
- Posts 273
- Votes 77
Seller finance
Post: USA National Multifamily Market Report as of October 1, 2023

- Real Estate Broker
- Los Angeles, CA
- Posts 273
- Votes 77
Post: USA National Hospitality Market Report as of October 1, 2023

- Real Estate Broker
- Los Angeles, CA
- Posts 273
- Votes 77

Greetings,
Here is an update on the current National Commercial Hospitality Real Estate Market in The United States of America:
Growth in U.S. performance metrics has slowed sharply over the last five months. This could point either at the beginning of a prolonged, slow downturn or could just be part of the ongoing normalization trend playing out across the industry. Room demand growth has been flat or declined since April which in turn led to occupancy declines. New supply is not a severe headwind and has only grown sub-0.5% for a while now. This softens the blow of demand declines, but still gives operators little pricing power conviction. Inflation continues to assist revenue managers as they lift ADR, but prices have increased sub-4% since April. RevPAR growth followed and in 2023Q3 it grew by -1.9%, which can also be considered to be more “normal”.
Looking ahead, CoStar and Oxford Economics project a mild recession with a 1% GDP decline in 23Q4 and 24Q1. Nonetheless, the U.S. RevPAR forecast for 2023 shows, for the first time, positive growth in a recession. Why is this time different? There are a few reasons for muted optimism: Corporate group and transient demand are still growing, although it will still take time to reach 2019 results. The ability to work from almost anywhere but the office on Fridays could spur long weekend trips more often. We expect that "higher for longer" inflation allows rates to inch upward, driving up RevPAR.
But headwinds for certain segments remain. Office utilization may be structurally impaired so it is possible that - despite improvements - midweek transient travel will stay below 2019 levels, as well. On the Delta Airlines 23Q1 earnings call, its president stated their expectation for corporate demand to be at 75% of pre-pandemic levels, and on their 23Q2 call he simply said: “We're not really counting on anything more than what we see today." In addition, Kastle System office occupancy data show office utilization in downtown areas still down around 50% from pre-pandemic levels.
The number of rooms in construction dropped from a pre-pandemic high of around 212,000 rooms to just around 150,000 rooms. But construction debt costs are rising and this will likely have an impact on construction counts going forward.
In addition to the pipeline, transaction activity is also impacted by higher interest rates. The preliminary third quarter transaction volume was around 45% lower than in 22Q3. Higher interest rates and a looming recession are putting a damper on deal appetite which will likely last through the first half of the next year. Mezzanine and other debt options are available, for a price, and the higher interest payments, together with looming capital requirements from the brands, so-called property improvement plans, or PIPs, may push some owners to sell.
Here are several graphs illustrating the current national commercial hospitality market in The United States of America:
Here is the full USA hospitality market report for you to review: https://d2saw6je89goi1.cloudfront.net/uploads/digital_asset/file/1170836/United_States-Hospitality-National-2023-10-02_compressed.pdf
Data includes: Sale price per key distribution, cap rate distribution, cumulative sales volume by year, months to sale, recent significant sales, occupancy rates, ADR, RevPAR, construction deliveries/demolitions, economy, job growth. population growth, and Los Angeles county sub-market activity.
Post: USA National Industrial Market Report as of October 1, 2023

- Real Estate Broker
- Los Angeles, CA
- Posts 273
- Votes 77

Greetings,
Here is an update on the current National Commercial Industrial Real Estate Market in The United States of America:
U.S. industrial market performance is downshifting heading into late 2023. While the national vacancy rate is expected to remain below its 20-year average of 7.3%, the next 12 months could still prove to be one of the more challenging periods for the market over the next five years.
So far during 2023, net absorption has remained positive but lost steam, with 2023Q2 coming in 30% below second quarter levels averaged during the three years prior to the pandemic. After continuously rebuilding inventories from the fall of 2021 through the fall of 2022, retailers and wholesalers are pausing further inventory accumulation out of caution over the economic outlook causing U.S. imports to decline from record highs. Meanwhile, a swift recovery appears unlikely given the near-term potential for a mild, interest rate-driven recession, which poses downside risks to CoStar's basecase forecast for net absorption in late 2023 and early 2024.
One silver lining is that even when excluding web services, Amazon's North American sales have been rising by double digits and the company is slowing its distribution center closures which began more than one year ago. The recent slowdown in imports has also helped major retailers including Walmart, Target, and Costco clear the excess inventories they accumulated last year. However, drags on household finances including still elevated gas prices, and multi-decade highs in credit card interest rates may need to abate before consumer goods spending can reaccelerate and give retailers the confidence they need to resume distribution network expansions.
Regardless, oncoming new supply is all but certain to push the national vacancy rate up during late 2023 and early 2024. Across the 87 markets that make up CoStar's national index, there is 527 million SF of projects under construction. Most are unleased and set to complete within 12 months. The national vacancy rate has been rising for four consecutive quarters and after reaching a peak of 11.5% in mid-2022, year-over-year rent growth has moderated to 7.4% as of 2023q4. Further deceleration in rent growth seems unavoidable in late 2023 and early 2024, given that landlords will be contending with a record tally of newly built space, at a time when sharp interest rate increases from 2022 and 2023 will likely still be weighing on the economy.
Construction starts on new industrial projects have also been plummeting since last fall, with developers increasingly concerned that higher interest rates are causing the values of newly delivered projects to dip below replacement costs. Given the average construction time of about 14 months for recently completed large industrial projects, this recent pullback in starts signals that by summer 2024, the number of new projects completing construction each quarter will begin to rapidly decline. This may well set the stage for vacancies to stabilize or begin tightening again by late 2024, and for rent growth to accelerate shortly thereafter. CoStar is also tracking more than 20 large electric vehicle, battery, and semiconductor plants planning to open across the U.S. during 2024-26, and suppliers to these facilities will likely generate millions of square feet of additional leasing over that period.
Here are several graphs illustrating the current national commercial industrial market in The United States of America:
Here is the full USA industrial market report for you to review: https://d2saw6je89goi1.cloudfront.net/uploads/digital_asset/file/1170835/United_States-Industrial-National-2023-10-02_compressed.pdf
Data includes: Sale price per unit distribution, cap rate distribution, cumulative sales volume by year, months to sale, recent significant sales, vacancy rates, market rent per square foot, construction deliveries/demolitions, economy, job growth. population growth, and Los Angeles county sub-market activity.
Post: USA National Office Market Report as of October 1, 2023

- Real Estate Broker
- Los Angeles, CA
- Posts 273
- Votes 77

Greetings,
Here is an update on the current National Commercial Office Real Estate Market in The United States of America:
Office vacancy has continued its climb so far in 2023, reaching a record 13.4% nationally, with tenants collectively giving back over 47 million square feet since the beginning of the year. Total occupancy is now at its lowest level since 17Q2, despite office-using employment being nearly 12% higher. On top of this, the quantity of space that is formally occupied but nevertheless available for lease is more than 50 million square feet above its historical norm, having risen steadily since mid-2020.
Thus, in the aggregate, today's occupiers demand about 440 million square feet less than current employment levels suggest – an amount larger than the entire inventory of Los Angeles, the nation's fourth-largest office market. This has sent the ratio of occupied square footage per employed worker plummeting to 8% below what it was entering 2020, accelerating a decade-long trend of shrinking space-per-worker requirements.
Recent market and secular trends suggest that stagnant demand is likely to linger and that space-per-worker requirements could shrink even further. Leasing data for 2023 to date shows the quarterly volume of new leasing activity to be more than15% below pre-pandemic norms; moreover, the average size of a new lease has shrunk by nearly 20%. This is consistent with two trends noted by market participants. One is that large tenants are reducing their footprints when existing leases roll over. Another is that smaller tenants are choosing to relocate rather than to renew, thus skewing the composition of tenants in the market toward those with smaller requirements.
The secular explanation for this is the stagnation of office utilization, which is enabling employers to support more workers with less space. Various return-to-office indicators such as the Kastle Systems building occupancy index, public transit ridership data, and largescale employee/employer surveys, show that average office attendance nationwide has held steady at 50-60% of 2019 levels (though somewhat higher on midweek peak days) for the better part of the past 12 months. One recent addition to this body of evidence is a July Government Accountability Office report showing that federal government agency offices were typically operating at about 25% of capacity in 23Q1.
The slow recovery of utilization comes against the backdrop of a surprisingly resilient labor market. Layoffs in office-using industries were elevated from 22Q4 through the early portion of 23Q2, but have since normalized. And while organizations in the tech-heavy information sector have not added any net new jobs since May of 2022, they are still employing about 8% more workers than they were at the beginning of 2020.
Overall, office-using employment is right where long-term trends suggest it should be. However, there are headwinds blowing. The majority opinion among economists is that a long-expected recession will materialize in late 2023 or early 2024. With job openings pulling back from record highs and the rate of voluntary quitting back down to historic norms, economic uncertainty already appears to be cooling the knowledge labor market.
This scenario suggests a long road to recovery for the sector. An estimated 55% of leases executed prior to 2020 have yet to face an expiration, but about half of these are expected to do so by the end of 2025. This is likely to lead to further negative absorption and higher vacancy in the coming months. An estimated 60 million square feet of new inventory is set to deliver during 2023. This will add a temporary strain from the supply side as well, though deliveries should slacken in the years ahead.
The uncertainty of future demand has exacerbated the downward pressure on office pricing wrought by higher interest rates. On average, values are down about 10% from their peak at the end of 2021, and this appears to be only the beginning. CoStar's house view forecast anticipates a peak-to-trough value decline of 30-35% by the middle of 2026, comparable to what happened after the Great Recession and far steeper and longer than the double-digit corrections expected in other commercial property sectors.
There is resiliency at the top of the market, including 5- Star and new-vintage buildings, where rent growth has remained positive. But overall, outside a few Sun Belt geographies like Miami and Las Vegas, the office market looks to be a bear market for some time to come.
Here are several graphs illustrating the current national commercial office market in The United States of America:
Here is the full USA office market report for you to review: https://d2saw6je89goi1.cloudfront.net/uploads/digital_asset/file/1170834/United_States-Office-National-2023-10-02_compressed.pdf
Data includes: Sale price per unit distribution, cap rate distribution, cumulative sales volume by year, months to sale, recent significant sales, vacancy rates, market rent per square foot, construction deliveries/demolitions, economy, job growth. population growth, and Los Angeles county sub-market activity.
Post: USA National Retail Market Report as of October 1, 2023

- Real Estate Broker
- Los Angeles, CA
- Posts 273
- Votes 77

Greetings,
Here is an update on the current National Commercial Retail Real Estate Market in The United States of America:
Despite longstanding concerns of a softening economy and eventual pullback in consumer spending, U.S. retail space markets remained resilient in the first half of 2023 thanks to steady demand from a diverse array of sectors, a still below-average pace of store closures, and minimal new supply.
Overall, demand for space grew by nearly 12 million SF during 23Q2, marking the ninth consecutive quarter of growth for retail space markets. Growing demand and still limited new supply additions have kept the U.S. retail space market at its tightest level on record, with just 4.8% of all retail space available for lease as of the end of 23Q2. Retail availability contracted by 50 basis points over the past year and is 200 basis points below its historical average of 6.8%. With available space hovering at such low levels, many tenants are reporting having difficulty finding spaces in target locations, especially those looking for mid-sized boxes and outparcels in primary corridors of higher growth Sun Belt markets.
The lack of available retail space in desirable locations is a factor contributing to the recent pullback in leasing activity. Retail tenants signed for approximately 56 million SF of space in 23Q2, which is the lowest level recorded since 20Q2. While this figure will rise as additional deals signed near the end of the quarter are discovered, leasing activity has cooled noticeably over the past year, with trailing four-quarter leasing activity falling to 241 million SF, its lowest level since 2020 and nearly 20% below the average recorded during the five-year period preceding the pandemic (2015-2019).
Other factors contributing to the pullback in leasing activity include a more-challenging operating environment, a lack of available labor, and a rise in uncertainty surrounding the outlook for consumption. Despite slowing leasing activity, the growth in demand for retail space outpaced net deliveries for the ninth consecutive quarter in 23Q2.
While demand for space continues to rise, new retail development activity remains minimal. Just under 50 million SF of new retail space delivered across the U.S. over the past year, a level which is more than 35% below the prior 10-year average. With over three-quarters of new development having a tenant in-place at delivery, the U.S. retail market has faced virtually no threat from new supply, as developers and banks continue to shy away from large speculative retail projects.
The vast majority of retail construction activity consists of single-tenant build-to-suits or smaller ground-floor spaces in mixed-use developments. In addition, given strong demand for housing and other uses, an active pace of demolitions continue to remove obsolete space from the market. Over 145 million square feet of space has been demolished over the past five years, the vast majority of which is attached to or within underperforming malls.
While moderating from the multi-decade high pace seen near the end of 2022, retail asking rents continue to rise at a healthy clip thanks to minimal availability and the significant boost in retail sales coming out of the pandemic. Asking rents for retail spaces have increased by 3.5% over the past year to a new record high of $24.00/SF.
Here are several graphs illustrating the current national commercial retail market in The United States of America:
Here is the full USA retail market report for you to review: https://d2saw6je89goi1.cloudfront.net/uploads/digital_asset/file/1170833/United_States-Retail-National-2023-10-02_compressed.pdf
Data includes: Sale price per unit distribution, cap rate distribution, cumulative sales volume by year, months to sale, recent significant sales, vacancy rates, market rent per square foot, construction deliveries/demolitions, economy, job growth. population growth, and Los Angeles county sub-market activity.
Post: USA National Multifamily Market Report as of October 1, 2023

- Real Estate Broker
- Los Angeles, CA
- Posts 273
- Votes 77

Greetings,
Here is an update on the current National Commercial Multifamily Real Estate Market in The United States of America:
The multifamily trend of the past six quarters has been one of supply outpacing demand, and the second quarter of 2023 held to that script. More than 105,000 units were absorbed in the quarter, a number not seen since 21Q3, as demand began to recover from its weak showing in the prior six quarters. While a positive sign for apartment demand, it was not enough to fill the 145,000 units delivered during the quarter. Thus, rent growth nationally decelerated once again, going from 2.9% at the end of March to 0.9%.
Midwest and Northeast markets fared the best over the past 12 months, with year-over-year rent growth down only marginally. At the end of the second quarter of 2023, the top five rent growth leaders are Cincinnati, Northern New Jersey, Columbus, Indianapolis, and Chicago reflecting the strength and balance currently seen in more mature markets, with rent growth ranging from 3.4% to 4.2%.
Sun Belt markets on the other hand have seen significant slowing in rent growth over the past 12 months. Austin and Las Vegas anchor the bottom of the rent growth pack with year-over-year rent growth of -4.0 and -2.8%% respectively. No major Sun Belt markets currently have rent growth above the national average. The slowing of rent growth will continue for the rest of 2023, as the risk of recession hangs over the economy and many markets are experiencing over-supply conditions.
Nationwide, more than 1 million multifamily units are under construction, the largest pipeline since the early 1970s. Current projections show 554,000 units will be delivered this year. Many markets are at risk of oversupply, especially in the Sun Belt, reflecting the significant acceleration of development activity in that region responding to strong in-migration during the pandemic. Since 2019, deliveries in Sun Belt markets have increased 64% while they are up by only 8% in the rest of the nation.
The supply/demand imbalance has pushed the national vacancy rate up over 200 basis points from an all-time low of 4.7% in the third quarter of 2021 to 7.0% midway through 2023. CoStar's current forecast pegs the national vacancy rate to finish this year in the mid-7% range, which would be 100 basis points higher than prepandemic levels. Second quarter absorption saw strong demand in 3 Star priced units emerging for the first time since 2021. Higher rents and soaring inflation have burdened mid-priced renter households at the beginning of 2022 and dampened potential household formation. The rise in second quarter 3-Star absorption suggests that mid-priced assets could lead the beginning of a recovery for these institutional quality assets.
Here are several graphs illustrating the current national commercial multifamily market in The United States of America:
Here is the full USA multifamily market report for you to review: https://d2saw6je89goi1.cloudfront.net/uploads/digital_asset/file/1170832/United_States-MultiFamily-National-2023-10-02_compressed.pdf
Data includes: Sale price per unit distribution, cap rate distribution, cumulative sales volume by year, months to sale, recent significant sales, vacancy rates, market rent per unit, construction deliveries/demolitions, economy, job growth. population growth, and sub-market activity.
Post: Los Angeles Commercial Hospitality Market Report as of October 1, 2023

- Real Estate Broker
- Los Angeles, CA
- Posts 273
- Votes 77

Greetings,
Here is an update on the current Commercial Hospitality Market in Los Angeles County, CA:
The Los Angeles hospitality market experienced year-over-year growth in occupancy, ADR, and RevPAR year-to-date through August. Also, hotels in the Los Angeles market maintain one of the highest occupancy and ADR levels nationally. Lured by beaches, Hollywood, and Universal Studios, leisure visitors remain the primary travel segment to the market. However, similar to national trends, the summer hotel performance was soft as "revenge travel" ended and leisure visitors reverted back to normal travel patterns.
Still, Los Angeles is among the few U.S. markets achieving 12-month average occupancy levels above 70% but remains below 2019, when occupancy was almost 80%. The 12-month average hotel occupancy is not expected to fully recover until 2026 due to the new hotel inventory additions and the delayed return of international visitors.
All topline metrics are projected to grow in the next five years. However, the growth rate is forecast to moderate due to the anticipated mild recession later this year. Long-term, hotel demand in the area will show greater strength, as Los Angeles is hosting two mega events that garner worldwide attention, the 2028 Olympics and the 2026 FIFA World Cup (as one of the host cities).
While hotel topline performance is favorable, room labor expense has been steadily increasing since the Los Angeles Hotel Worker Protection Ordinance took effect in August 2022. Some of the ordinance requirements include square footage cleaning limits for housekeepers, mandatory daily cleaning with no incentives to guests for passing on daily cleaning, and minimum wage increases for some hotels. Similar laws were passed in Santa Monica, Glendale, West Hollywood, and Long Beach. In February, the first class-action lawsuit was filed to enforce hotel workload protections against the Hyatt Long Beach. Additionally, union contracts expired on June 30th, resulting in 15,000 hotel workers in Los Angeles and Orange County going on strike, which represents the largest hotel strike in U.S. history. Unite Here Local 11 is asking for an immediate $5 increase to hourly wages and a $3 increase each year for the next three years. Other requests include affordable family health care, pension contribution increases, and increased staffing to have hours back to pre-pandemic levels.
There are approximately 2,300 rooms in 17 hotels under construction, resulting in a 2.0% inventory increase over the next few years. The addition of new inventory comes at the heels of 5,500 hotel rooms being added in the past three years.
The robust hotel investment appetite in Los Angeles continued early this year but stalled thereafter. In February, the closed 139-room Standard Hollywood Hotel was purchased by hospitality moguls Ed Scheetz and Ian Schrager for $112.5 million, or $803,353/key. The other hotels that traded this year were primarily Economy Class hotels, and sales prices did not exceed $20 million. Increasing interest rates, an expected mild recession, and new legislation impacting Los Angeles hotel values have dampened high-priced transaction activity, excluding the Standard.
Here are several graphs illustrating the current commercial industrial market in Los Angeles county:





Access the full Los Angeles county commercial hospitality market report here: https://d2saw6je89goi1.cloudfront.net/uploads/digital_asset/file/1170823/Los_Angeles_-_CA-Hospitality-Capital_Market-2023-10-02_a_compressed.pdf
Data includes: Sale price per key distribution, cap rate distribution, cumulative sales volume by year, months to sale, recent significant sales, occupancy rates, ADR, RevPAR, construction deliveries/demolitions, economy, job growth. population growth, and Los Angeles county sub-market activity.
Post: Los Angeles Commercial Industrial Market Report as of October 1, 2023

- Real Estate Broker
- Los Angeles, CA
- Posts 273
- Votes 77

Greetings,
Here is an update on the current Commercial Industrial Market in Los Angeles County, CA:
Los Angeles is at the center of the 2 billion-SF Southern California industrial market and is a key industrial hub in the U.S. Demand draws from the 20 million Southern California residents and from goods entering the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which combined handle nearly a third of all imports to the United States.
Demand for industrial properties has been impacted by losses in imports entering the ports from Asia. Loaded inbound containers declined by 25% in the past three months (from February to May 2023) compared to the same period in 2022. Consequentially, market conditions have softened. The vacancy rate has risen from 1.7% in 22Q1 to 4.2% today, with sharper increases in tradedependent submarkets such as Vernon, Commerce, and Central Los Angeles, as well as in older facilities across the county. Some tenants are putting space back on the market as sublet available space as they downsize operations. Demand from new businesses is also lackluster. Excluding renewals, leasing volume from new leases in the first half of 2023 was 5% lower than its pre-pandemic average in the first halves of 2015 to 2019, albeit nearly 50% greater than in the first half of 2022.
The higher amount of available space is helping tenants find new space or negotiate renewals as their lease terms end. Asking rents are much higher than three or five years ago and have grown by 5.3% during the past 12 months. However, rents grew by just -0.3% in 2023Q3—the slowest pace in more than ten years.
The slack in trade flows, augmented by the effect of higher interest rates on business formation, brings uncertainty to the short-term outlook for the space market. However, challenges in developing new industrial buildings in Los Angeles keep supply growth tame and help make existing inventory more desirable. The current construction pipeline represents 0.8% of existing inventory, compared to 2.8% in the nation. Industrial properties in Los Angeles are often demolished for redevelopment, further reducing supply growth.
Local sales activity started to moderate in 23Q2, whereas capital market conditions have been tightening across the nation since the start of 2023. Some 23Q1 sales were streamlined to avoid paying the ULA transfer tax that went into effect on April 1, 2023, in the city of Los Angeles. While valuations are declining as cap rates are rising, most recent sales have benefited from longterm appreciation. Unlike other property types, the extended period of strong rent growth has helped prevent industrial assets from selling at prices below cost.
Here are several graphs illustrating the current commercial industrial market in Los Angeles county:





Access the full Los Angeles county commercial industrial market report here: https://d2saw6je89goi1.cloudfront.net/uploads/digital_asset/file/1170822/Los_Angeles_-_CA-Industrial-Capital_Market-2023-10-02_a_compressed.pdf
Data includes: Sale price per unit distribution, cap rate distribution, cumulative sales volume by year, months to sale, recent significant sales, vacancy rates, market rent per square foot, construction deliveries/demolitions, economy, job growth. population growth, and Los Angeles county sub-market activity.
Post: Los Angeles Commercial Office Market Report as of October 1, 2023

- Real Estate Broker
- Los Angeles, CA
- Posts 273
- Votes 77

Greetings,
Here is an update on the current Commercial Office Market in Los Angeles County, CA:
Los Angeles' office market continues to face pains not seen in decades in the fourth quarter. Vacancy, 15.1%, is at its highest level since 1993 and up from 10.1% in early 2020. Recent leasing activity continues at a pace below historical activity, with year-to-date volumes trending around 70-75% of the average activity seen during 2016-19, the years leading up to the pandemic.
Tenant commitments have, at best, mitigated the continued rise in vacancy, as numerous tenants continue to vacate or downsize space, whether upon lease expiration or posting space on the sublease market to recoup real estate costs. Sublease space, 11.8 million SF, although having reached a plateau in 2023, is still near its highest level recorded on CoStar and represents 2.7% of inventory. Looking ahead, the outlook for occupancies remains bleak, with vacancy anticipated to continue to reach new heights in the coming years.
Rents have seen little movement since early 2020 and have witnessed losses of -0.4% during the past 12 months. Considering the market's weakness, one may have thought landlords would have reduced asking rates during this time. However, rents can only go so low before executing leases fail to make financial sense. In the current environment, many tenants expect elevated concessions and more tenant improvement dollars than obtained before 2020. Inflation in tenant build-out costs during the past several years has also added pressure to lease economics. According to local market experts, even 10-year leases may have to offer packages worth five to six years of the total rent collected during the lease to attract tenants.
Weak market conditions have resulted in developers exercising restraint when commencing new office projects, which has allowed the space under construction, 3.4 million SF, to come down from a recent high of 8.8 million square feet in 2020. Office starts over the past 10 quarters, just over 4 million SF, is 45% of the starts activity seen from 17Q4 through 20Q1, the peak 10-quarter period for starts during the last development cycle. Except for 1950 Avene of the Stars, a 731,000-SF tower underway in Century City, most speculative projects have been small-to-mid-sized mid-rise creative office projects hoping to attract tenants with the latest generation space. Developers have noticed that newer buildings have fared better with tenant interest since early 2020.
Market weakness and questions on the long-term trajectory of office space demand have resulted in modest sales activity. Year-to-date dollar activity is around half the volume seen from 2016-19. Notable sales this year demonstrate a stratification in pricing achieved. A handful of properties have achieved relatively strong pricing. The sale of the Pen Factory for $165.5 million ($755/SF) stands out. The result was driven by the asset being a creative office conversion that finished in 2017 (latest generation space), was 100% leased, and was in a strong location in Santa Monica, historically one of L.A.'s most sought-after office locations.
On the other hand, distressed pricing has been seen with several larger sales. In late June, the Trust Building in Downtown Los Angeles traded for $40 million ($140/SF). The sale price is half what the seller, JV partners Rising Realty Partners and Lionstone Investments, paid for the property in 2016. The sellers also spent several years and $40 million renovating the property. It saw little leasing activity after renovations completed in 2019.
Downtown Los Angeles' office market has especially suffered during the past few years. According to local leasing brokers, this is largely due to the acute homeless situation and increased concerns around crime. As the most prominent example of distress in the Los Angeles office market, Brookfield, the largest owner of office buildings in Downtown Los Angeles, defaulted this year on three of its towers, 777 Figueroa, Ernst & Young Plaza, and Gas Company Tower. Ernst & Young Plaza went into receivership in May, and Gas Company Tower went into receivership in April.
Here are several graphs illustrating the current commercial office market in Los Angeles county:





Access the full Los Angeles county commercial office market report here: https://d2saw6je89goi1.cloudfront.net/uploads/digital_asset/file/1170821/Los_Angeles_-_CA-Office-Capital_Market-2023-10-02_a_compressed.pdf
Data includes: Sale price per unit distribution, cap rate distribution, cumulative sales volume by year, months to sale, recent significant sales, vacancy rates, market rent per square foot, construction deliveries/demolitions, economy, job growth. population growth, and Los Angeles county sub-market activity.