Little undeveloped land left in Ventura County, real estate experts say
By Daniel Wolowicz camarillo@theacorn.com

Retailers, especially momandpop shops, are bracing for a lean fourth quarter due to the layoffs at two of Ventura County's largest employers, Countrywide and Amgen. The downturn may lead to higher vacancy rates in shopping centers throughout the county, said real estate experts from CB Richard Ellis in their recent third-quarter update.

Although retail and residential real estate are affected, a shrinking amount of undeveloped land, high construction costs and more businesses coming to the county from the San Fernando Valley and regions beyond continue to create tight markets in the office and industrial sectors, the experts said.

The West County has remained strong in commercial real estate, while the Conejo Valley is quickly becoming an extension of the highpriced Los Angeles market.

Retail property

David Rush, senior vice president of retail properties, said sales and leasing of retail space throughout the county remains flat over the third quarter.

Even though there hasn't been much movement, Rush said the retail market is still tight as the West County's vacancy rate in the third quarter was 1.9 percent while the East County posted a 4.1 percent vacancy rate.

The big question, Rush said, will be how much the soft housing market will affect the local retail market. Smaller businesses may feel the pinch especially hard, he said, creating more vacancy in retail space countywide.

Big third-quarter sales included the sale of the 120,000-square-foot Santa Suzana Plaza in Simi Valley. Rush said, the new shopping center owner, who asked to be kept confidential, is in negotiations with a major tenant to take over the now empty Vons store.

In Moorpark, the 68,000square-foot Tuscany Square will come on line in April. The new shopping center will include a Walgreens, Rabobank, and a Fresh and Easy supermarket- one of five new high-end stores British grocery giant Tesco plans to open in Ventura County.

Office property

"The market is really active right now," said Michael Slater, senior vice president of office properties. "There are a lot of tenants looking for space, both big and small, which is very exciting."

Moshe Silagi, owner of Thousand Oaksbased Silagi Development and Management, sold more than 3 million square feet of property throughout Southern California and Arizona to Orange County real estate firm The Muller Co., which partnered with General Electric Real Estate to co-finance the $460-million deal.

Westlake Plaza in Westlake Village and the Canwood Business Center in Agoura Hills were among the four Ventura County properties included in the transaction.

The General Electric-owned L.A. real estate firm Arden Realty sold six of its Ventura County properties to Florida-based CABI Developers for $235 million.

The largest single piece of property in the sale, which totaled 929,000 square feet, was the 283,000-square-foot Calabasas Tech Center. The 135,000squarefoot Camarillo Business Center was also part of the massive sale.

The most significant single office sale in the county over the summer was New Yorkbased developers Tishman Speyer's sale of the 400,000-square-foot Baxter building in Westlake Village to Beverly Hills-based real estate firm Kennedy Wilson for $131 million. Tishman bought the building last year for $92 million.

Slater said office building construction in the Conejo Valley has been "rampant" at nearly 1.2 million square feet of new office space expected to be fully completed by the end of 2008.

Slater said new businesses in the area are coming "from all over" and are primarily technologybased businesses, as well as venture capital and law firms and insurance companies.

Industrial property

"There were not a lot of lease or sales transactions in the last quarter," said Paul Farry, senior vice president of industrial properties.

In the West County, four of the seven significant lease deals for industrial space took place in Camarillo. The largest was a deal that moved four separate companies into the 64,000-square-foot Rexford Industrial Center off Lewis Road.

On the other side of the grade, there was only one large lease- a 46,000-square-foot building in Moorpark.

The East County saw only one large sale- a 49,000-square-foot building in Thousand Oaks sold to Sacramentobased Panattoni Development for $7.2 million.

Farry said there are a handful of available large-scale industrial properties for lease that are affecting the overall market, most notably Technicolor's former 900,000-square-foot facility that was sold in July to Santa Monicabased Sandstone Properties.

Vacancy rates for industrial space in the county rose slightly in the third quarter to 7.5 percent. Industrial space construction is at a standstill in the East County, while four of the five major construction projects for the West County are in Camarillo.