Jay Martinez of Lee & Associates recently closed on the sale of a 1.24-acre parcel of land with three office/industrial buildings on it. The property is located at 14649 Lanark St. in Panorama City, and the sales price was $3.5 million. The parcel is one of five commercial parcels and nine private homes that Los Angeles Unified School District is acquiring to build Valley Region Elementary School No. 13. The seller, Gary D. Solazzo, housed his business, Sola Security of Los Angeles, Inc., in an 11,822-square-foot office building on the property. The two additional industrial buildings of 5,400 square feet and 4,252 square feet had been leased to other tenants. “This purchase was based on an appraisal completed in September 2008, so we were very pleased to be able to achieve optimum value for our seller,” said Martinez. The property runs along Cedros Avenue, north to Titus Street and south to Lanark St. LAUSD plans on breaking ground on the 72,540 square foot elementary school sometime in the second quarter of 2010. Total cost for the project, including acquisition and construction, is $80 million. The district has possession of all land parcels and homes in a 5.46–acre area in Panorama City and has been working to tear buildings down and remediate the site. The entire cleanup still has to be approved by the Department of Toxic Substances Control. A couple years ago, the district announced its intentions to build Valley Region Elementary School No. 13 to relieve overcrowding in neighboring Panorama City schools. It’s one of 131 new schools being built. LAUSD acquired some of the commercial and residential parcels through escrow or settlements. But it also took eminent domain actions against some of the property owners. The $3.5 million sale was one such case, said Edwin Van Ginkel, senior development manager for LAUSD. But the district and property owner were able to settle out of court. Three eminent domain cases have yet to be settled. Funding for construction of the school comes from local bond dollars and state matching funds, said Van Ginkel. The district also plans to soon begin advertising for a general contractor on the project. In projects like this, LAUSD provides assistance to displaced businesses and families, such as help finding new locations, financial compensation and reimbursing for some tenant improvements made prior to the acquisition. Colliers Moves 18,000 Square Feet Jeff Albee of Colliers International completed the sale of an 18,000-square-foot mixed-use office and multi-family property located at 24100 and 24106 Calabasas Rd. in Calabasas. Seasons Greetings LLP, a commercial and residential real estate development company, is the buyer. The company paid all-cash in the transaction valued at $4.5 million. The newly constructed project consists of one 14,000-square-foot mixed-use building and one 4,000-square-foot apartment building. The two-story main building, at 24100 Calabasas Rd., has 7,000 square feet of office space on the ground floor, which Seasons Greetings LLP will occupy, and four apartment units on the second floor, totaling 7,000 square feet. The second building, at 24106 Calabasas Rd., consists of an additional four apartment units. “The escrow for this deal was complex,” said Albee, who represented the buyer with Jeff Gould and Chris Itule of Colliers. “Our team’s consultative approach is focused on helping clients maximize their return on investment. I am hopeful that this transaction is an indicator that the market is gaining some momentum.” The seller, Galveston, Texas-based American Nation Insurance Co., was represented by David Saeta and Darrin Nickerson of IDS Real Estate Group. Public Storage in Acquisition Mode Glendale-based Public Storage is in the process of acquiring 30 self-storage facilities for $189 million. Twenty-eight of the facilities (1.8 million square feet) are located in the Los Angeles area and surrounding communities of Southern California, and will expand the company’s market presence by approximately 20 percent. The other two facilities (107,000 square feet) are located in the Chicago area. The properties averaged just over 80 percent occupancy as of Jan. 31. “This acquisition represents a unique opportunity to acquire well located, urban infill properties throughout the Los Angeles basin,” said David F. Doll, senior vice president for Public Storage. “We will immediately begin to rebrand them as Public Storage properties upon completion of the transaction.” The transaction is expected to close in stages during the next several months. The first closing of one property in Los Angeles occurred on April 1. Staff Reporter Eric Billingsley can be reached at (818) 316-3124 or at [email protected].
Panorama City Property Sold to Make Way for School
