Completion of the Conejo Spectrum industrial park last year marked the first new state-of-the-art industrial project of significant size in Ventura County or the San Fernando Valley in 15 years. The Thousand Oaks property of nine buildings was developed by Sares Regis Group, an Irvine investment and development firm, and traded hands in January to Rexford Industrial Realty Inc. for $100 million in cash. Seven of the nine building have been leased, according to the industrial park’s website. The Spectrum was acquired by Rexford in an off-market deal. Its nine buildings total 531,378 square feet on 28 acres of land. Howard Schwimmer and Michael Frankel, co-chief executives of Rexford, said the deal demonstrates the Los Angeles firm’s ability to leverage its deep relationships and market knowledge to make accretive acquisitions in Southern California’s industrial infill markets. “This transaction presented the rare opportunity to acquire a newly constructed industrial park in a highly competitive submarket in which Class A industrial space is virtually unavailable,” Schwimmer and Frankel said in a statement. Spec development In 2017, Sares Regis and a financial partner bought the land, the last buildable parcels in the business park located on Conejo Spectrum Street, which sits between Rancho Conejo Boulevard and Conejo Spectrum Drive. The developer built on spec the nine buildings that range in size from 37,000 square feet to 100,000 square feet with 28- to 30-foot clear height ceilings, numerous dock-high loading doors, office space, high-performance sprinkler systems and fenced yards. The firm targeted logistics, manufacturing and high-technology companies as tenants. Among the companies occupying the buildings are Sage Publications; Atara Biopharmaceuticals; River Supply Co., one of the world’s largest suppliers of nicotine and E-liquid; Sideshow Collectibles, a specialty manufacturer and distributor of original pop culture collectible products; Barefoot Dreams, a distributor of hand-knitted baby blankets, children’s apparel, chic lounge wear for adults and accessories for the home; and Ferguson HVAC Lyon Conklin, a national distributor of residential and commercial heating and cooling equipment, parts and supplies. “Conejo Spectrum Business Park has attracted high-quality tenants, including major e-commerce and consumer product companies, due to the substantial demand for last-mile logistics to service the adjacent population centers of the San Fernando Valley and Ventura County markets,” Schwimmer and Frankel said in their statement. Rexford is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that owns 179 properties with approximately 22 million rentable square feet and manages an additional 20 properties with about 1.2 million rentable square feet. Forty of the company’s properties are in the San Fernando Valley region. “As we progress through 2019, we believe our pipeline of investment opportunities will enable us to continue to deliver exceptional internal and external growth and to create long-term value for our shareholders,” Schwimmer and Frankel said in the statement. In addition to the Conejo Spectrum, Rexford bought six other properties so far this year, including the San Fernando Business Center, in the city of San Fernando, for $118 million and Newbury Industrial Park, in Newbury Park, for $23.7 million.