Southern California's most active industrial buyer is cracking open its latest investment in San Gabriel Valley: a massive brewery site.
Rexford Industrial Realty, which is based in Los Angeles, bought the roughly 993,000-square-foot 15801 W. First St. in Irwindale for $120 million, or about $121 per square foot, a statement from the company said. The 75-acre property is the site of Irwindale Brew Yard, which beer giant Pabst Brewing Co. bought in November 2020 for $150 million, according to a statement at the time.
Rexford may redevelop the brewery site eventually, but the property today is subject to an eight-year lease with long-term extension options, according to the statement. The iconic brewery can be seen from the Interstate 210 and features beer logos on its property.
In addition, Rexford issued a $125 million loan to the seller backed by an adjacent 150-acre industrial development site, which includes the right of first offer for Rexford to buy the real estate in the future. The fixed-rate loan has an 8% interest rate. The loan is being used by Pabst to secure entitlements for new industrial space on the site, according to someone familiar with the deal.
Rexford, which only invests in Southern California, has bought $1.4 billion in industrial properties this year. Executives said Oct. 19 the company is interested in selling some of its real estate in order to generate more capital it can invest in higher-yielding industrial real estate. Rexford has been greater L.A.'s top industrial buyer over the past five years, spending more than $3.7 billion on real estate.
The deals join several large industrial transactions that have occurred in Irwindale in the past year. In October 2022, San Francisco-based industrial giant Prologis bought a portfolio of properties including the roughly 530,000-square-foot 13131 Los Angeles St. In addition, Los Angeles-based real estate investment group IDS Real Estate Group purchased the Irwindale Speedway for $80 million to redevelop the property into industrial space.
Representatives for Rexford and Pabst didn't respond to emailed requests to comment from CoStar News.