Home Care In Center Point, LA

After investing $750 million in industrial real estate in Southern California last year, CenterPoint Properties is back at it with the acquisition of a 109,000-square-foot warehouse in the Inland Empire.

The property, currently occupied by telecommunications network company KGPCo, sits on nine acres at 2777 E. Cedar St. in Ontario, California, a half-mile from the 60 freeway with easy access to the I-15 and I-15 freeways.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Chicago-based real estate company said it plans to invest in the site to align the facility with its investment strategy, which has focused on low-coverage properties.

“Nearly a third of this site is excess land that we plan to pave for additional parking,” said Kim Rierson, CenterPoint’s vice president of construction in the West Region, in a statement. “This is an exciting project that represents CenterPoint’s unique ability to identify, acquire and develop low-coverage properties in the top submarkets in the country.”

The move comes after CenterPoint bought 13 properties in Southern California in 2021. The firm's latest acquisition brings its total holdings across the region to 65 properties comprising nearly 7.75 million square feet.

The company said it plans to increase its investments in the area again this year, including expanding its footprint in the Inland Empire after concentrating on the L.A. Basin over the past couple of years. The Cedar St. property is located about 2.5 miles from one of the buildings in its acquisition of three Crown Lift Truck locations in December.

“The Inland Empire — particularly the Inland Empire-West — has rapidly become an infill market as logistics and e-commerce companies continue to absorb space at a rapid pace,” added Ashley Vanacore, CenterPoint’s investment officer in the West Region. “2777 Cedar has multiple property characteristics that are emblematic of our target investment strategy for this submarket.”

John Seoane and Tom Walrich of Lee & Associates brokered the sale and will represent CenterPoint for the property going forward.

The sale comes amid record demand for industrial real estate in the Inland Empire. The vacancy rate hit an all-time low of 0.5% in the fourth quarter, according to CBRE Group Inc., and the average taking lease rate reached a record high of $1.07 per square foot per month.

CenterPoint Properties has picked up three more Los Angeles-area industrial properties in one sale-leaseback transaction with global forklift manufacturer Crown Equipment Corp.

The Chicago-based real estate firm has acquired three Crown Lift Truck locations in Long Beach, Ontario and La Verne totaling 215,733 square feet on more than 16 acres.

Terms were not disclosed.

The largest facility, located at 4250 E. Greystone Dr. in Ontario, comprises 128,129 square feet on nearly 11 acres, with a 30-foot clear height, 140-foot truck court and accommodations for 26 loading doors. The property offers immediate access to the SR-60 and I-15 freeways linking Los Angeles and Riverside Counties.

The La Verne property, located at 1300 Palomares Ave., is about 50,000 square feet on around 2 acres, according to Reonomy data, with a Class A facility including a 26-foot clear height and five loading doors. It has frontage on Arrow Highway with access to the SR-57, I-10 and I-210 freeways.

And the Long Beach warehouse at 4061 Via Oro Ave. is about 38,00 square feet on 3 acres, per Reonomy, with a 35-foot clear height and two loading doors. It’s located the I-405 and I-710 freeways linking Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

“We’re rarely able to find a portfolio that aligns with our highly disciplined strategy — we’ve built a portfolio of 275 properties and 65 million square feet, primarily one at a time,” said CenterPoint Senior Vice President of Investments Evan Lippow in a statement.

With low property coverage of less than 30%, the Ontario and Long Beach properties are the latest additions in CenterPoint’s strategy to acquire “spacious port-proximate properties for high-throughput above-market parking and storage,” the company said.

The sale comes as demand for industrial real estate in Greater Los Angeles hit an all-time high in the third quarter. Industrial vacancy across the region fell to 1.0%, tying the record low set in Q3 2016, according to CBRE Group Inc. Meanwhile, Greater L.A. industrial asking lease rates averaged $1.08 per square foot per month in Q3, marking the highest average asking lease rate yet.

“With both port volumes and e-commerce driving so much of the industrial demand in Southern California, the attributes we seek in our investments are the ones this portfolio has in abundance,” added CenterPoint Investment Officer Ashley Vanacore. “The La Verne and Ontario properties are in two of the hottest submarkets in the country. The Long Beach property promises to be in high demand in any economic cycle due to its quality infill location.”

Our Milky Way galaxy is a vast collection of hundreds of billions of stars. We’re not in the galaxy’s center, but instead about 2/3s of the way out from center, in one of the Milky Way’s spiral arms. On August evenings, all of us on Earth can gaze toward the galaxy’s center in a dark sky. In fact, the band of the Milky Way gets broader and brighter in the direction toward the center. Plus, in that direction, you’ll find a famous asterism called the Teapot, in the constellation Sagittarius.

The Teapot’s pattern is distinctive. Once you spot it, it’s easy to imagine as an earthly teapot. You’ll find it southward on August evenings from the Northern Hemisphere, and overhead from the Southern Hemisphere.

Even if your sky isn’t dark, once you find the Teapot, you can use it to guide your mind’s eye to the star-rich center of our galaxy. A supermassive black hole lies at the galaxy’s heart. As a matter of fact, it has some 4 million times the mass of our sun. It’s called Sagittarius A* (Sagittarius A-Star).

You’ll want a fairly dark sky to find the Teapot (a suburban sky will likely work, if you’re not standing under a streetlight). You can see the Teapot even if you can’t see the starry band of the Milky Way. If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, look southward on August evenings a couple of hours after sunset. If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, look overhead.

The Teapot and Sagittarius are best viewed during the evening hours from about July to September.

Want a more exact location for Sagittarius? Try Stellarium, which will let you set a date and time from your exact location on the globe.

The constellation of Sagittarius is supposed to be a centaur, a mythical half man/half horse creature, carrying a bow and arrow. But good luck spotting the centaur in these stars.

On the other hand, the Teapot – unlike many star patterns – looks like its namesake. That’s because the Teapot appears to have a handle, spout and lid, as any earthly teapot would. And just be sure to head to a dark sky for your best views of this Milky Way region.

Once you’ve found the Teapot, assuming you have a dark sky, you can see “steam” billowing out of the spout. Gaze into the midst of this “steam” – into the thickest part of it – and you’ll be gazing toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

Because the sun passes in front of Sagittarius from about December 18 to January 20, the Teapot isn’t visible then. However, about half a year later – on July 1 – the Teapot climbs to its highest point for the night around midnight (1 a.m. daylight saving time or DST), when it appears due south as seen from the Northern Hemisphere or due north as seen from the Southern Hemisphere. In August, the Teapot – and the Milky Way center – reach their highest points for the night during the evening hours.

By the way, another noteworthy point lies in the direction of the Teapot in space. It’s the point at which the sun shines on the December solstice around December 21 each year.

The center of our galaxy is some 30,000 light-years away. We can’t see directly into it, because this region is shrouded by dust and gas clouds. But studies of astronomers have shown that, when we look in this direction, we’re looking toward the supermassive black hole located at our galaxy’s heart. This black hole has some 4 million times our sun’s mass. It’s known as Sagittarius A*.

Now sweep the area around the Teapot with binoculars or a telescope. You’ll see many faint fuzzy objects pop into view. They’re star clusters and nebulae (gas clouds) located in the disk of our galaxy, in the direction toward the galaxy’s center.

So, find the Teapot on a dark night – when the moon is out of the way – and enjoy all it has to offer.

Bottom line: As you gaze toward the famous Teapot asterism in the constellation Sagittarius, you’re looking toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

In 2015, the San Marcos Planning and Zoning commission proposed and approved a development agreement with La Cima San Marcos, which included the completion of a portion of the Centerpoint Road extension to Ranch Road 12.

By, Terra Rivers, Managing Editor

On Tuesday, August 28, the Hays County Commissioners Court considered two items regarding the first phase of the Centerpoint Road extension to Ranch Road 12.

In 2012, the Hays County and the San Marcos Transportation plan proposed the extension as a potential solution for alleviating traffic on the west side of San Marcos.

The proposed project, when completed, will provide a connection from Ranch Road 12 to I-35.

Both agenda items passed with a 4-0 vote and no discussion or comments from commissioners or the public. With the warranty bonds accepted, La Cima opened the road to traffic within minutes of the commissioners’ approval.

In 2015, the San Marcos Planning and Zoning commission proposed and approved a development agreement with La Cima San Marcos, which included the completion of a portion of the Centerpoint Road extension to Ranch Road 12.

The developer started construction on the road in 2017 and completed it in the last two weeks. However, the road remained blocked by barricades until commissioners voted to accept the road construction and drainage improvements, release of the LOC #5132 and accept the maintenance and revegetation bonds for the subdivision.

Eric Willis, Project Developer for La Cima, said La Cima’s role in the project was simply to help fulfill the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s vision of connectivity between I-35 and downtown San Marcos.

To highlight the road’s completion, two of La Cima’s builders, Highland and Wilshire Homes, opened their model homes for the development on Saturday, August 25. Currently, the development has seven homes under construction.

However, builders are expected to have started construction on 12 to 15 more homes within the next 30 days.

Highland Homes is offering tours from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM Monday through Saturday and Noon to 6:00 PM on Sunday; visitors are required to schedule their tours. The Wilshire Homes’ model is open Sunday and Monday from Noon to 7:00 PM and Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Walk-ins are welcome.

The model home for La Cima’s third builder, Scott Felder Homes, is still under construction; however, it is projected to be completed sometime between late September to early October.

According to Willis, 12 homes had already been sold before the models opened; however, construction has not started on all of them as of yet.

La Cima closed on their first home site with Wilshire Homes in March 2018.

The first phase of the homes to be built will start in the mid $200,000 range and can go up to $500,000 depending on the lot, options and builder chosen.

The Centerpoint Road connection is planned to run through two private properties, the Herrera Tract and the Posey Tract, before connecting with the Kissing Ranch development at Centerpoint and Hunter Road.

Once completed the road will offer residents an alternative route from I-35 and potentially alleviate traffic issues at Wonder World Drive and the interstate.

Former Hays County Commissioner, Will Conley, who was on the court when the project was first proposed, said that the county’s main concern had been to preserve the corridor so the project could be completed once funding was available.

Commissioner Lon Shell said currently, the county is still in the planning process with the property owners on what route the road will take, but the county hopes to have everything at least on paper in the next six months.

Shell said La Cima’s city utilities will have to connect with Kissing Trees, and the county hopes to plan the utility lines into the right of way along the Centerpoint Rd extension.

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Laura Frey said the idea for her new business first came to her as a young girl walking through the old Armstrong's Department Store in downtown Cedar Rapids.

'My mom worked there, and I modeled there when I was a kid,” Frey said, noting that she had dreamed of someday working in the store's 'Trendsetters” department. 'But Armstrong's closed, and my dream was dashed.”

At the age of 18, with a career at Armstrong's now out of the question, Frey obtained a real estate license and set a goal to retire by the time she was 40. She met that goal with a year to spare.

Upon her retirement from real estate, Frey and her husband, who is a builder, began spending a lot of time at their home in southern California and Frey became familiar with Los Angeles' fashion districts.

'I found L.A. has so many opportunities,” Frey said. 'Everywhere I went, somebody was doing something unique in business.”

Frey was inspired to try her hand in the fashion business. She began designing and making scarves with fabric sourced in Los Angeles and sold them in Iowa under the name Aura Scarves. At the same time, her Iowa friends were asking her to shop for them when she was in L.A.

'They'd ask me to check the fashion district for this and that, which caused me to delve into the fashion side of things more,” she said. 'It's amazing what you can find.”

Frey found so much, in fact, that she set up a pop-up boutique in Fix Salon in Cedar Rapids. The shop was a hit, and Frey decided to make it permanent.

Frey found a house on North Center Point Road in Hiawatha, but ended up purchasing the vacant lot next door from the same owner. Her husband completed a 5,000-square-foot, multi-tenant commercial building on the lot in just 91 days.

Recalling her childhood dream, Frey named the building Trendsetter Place.

Frey's boutique, LA Trends Addict, is the first store to open in Trendsetter Place and focuses on fashions popular in Los Angeles. The store is organized into sections named after Los Angeles' fashion districts, with merchandise reflecting the styles of each district.

'Rodeo Drive has the classic, timeless investment pieces that will be in your closet forever,” Frey explained. 'Robertson Boulevard has the trendy pieces that you can replace next year because they're more affordable.”

Other sections offer plus sizes, girls' fashions, and fashion essentials such as bralettes and leggings.

Frey said a full-service, luxury salon will open at Trendsetter Place in early 2016. The salon will partner with the boutique in hosting parties and girls' nights out events. Frey would like to lease a third space to a café that could cater the special events.

' Know a company or manager who has been in business for less than a year that would be ideal for 'Ground Floor”? Email [email protected]

At a Glance

' Owner: Laura Frey

' Business: LA Trends Addict

' Address: 1200 North Center Point Road, Hiawatha

' Telephone: (319) 200-2222

' Website: www.latrendsaddict.com