Kearny, Morgan Stanley Completes $92M Sale of Kearny South Bay Business Park

March 4, 2010
By Allison Landa, News Editor

Kearny Real Estate on Thursday announced completion of the $92 million sale of Kearny South Bay Business Park, the site of the former U.S. headquarters for Nissan North America. The deal was completed in partnership with Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing.

The business park is a 42-acre complex located at 190th and Figueroa Streets in Los Angeles and Carson, near the junction of the San Diego and Harbor freeways. It is comprised of 13 low- and mid-rise office, light industrial and research and development buildings totaling 708,000 square feet. The buildings themselves range in size from 14,000 to 184,000 square feet.

As a final piece of that puzzle, the last building – a three-story, 183,400 square foot facility – was sold to Kaiser Foundation Health plan, which will consolidate its South Bay operations there.

In October 2006, the campus was acquired by the Kearny-led partnership from Nissan North America. Nissan, which had been headquartered for more than four decades at the site, chose to move its operations as well as 1,300 jobs to Nashville, Tenn. As Kearny repositioned the property, its single-user campus was converted to 13 upgraded stand-alone buildings. Seven buildings were sold in 2007, five in 2008, and the Kaiser deal represents the last building sold.

According to a statement from Kearny, the vacant site has now been repopulated with businesses ranging in industry from fashion to finance, high-tech manufacturing, automotive and healthcare services. These include Fang Fashion, Simpson Housing, Pacific Transportation Federal Credit Union, and Qual-Pro. Once Kaiser moves into its space, the site will have more employees than were previously working for Nissan.

Kearny’s multimillion-dollar repositioning of the property included tasks such as numerous lot line adjustments, utilities separation, significant ADA and cosmetic improvements, asbestos abatement, expanded parking, and a quit claim of parking covenants.

In a statement, Kearny managing partner Jeff Dritley called the project both challenging and rewarding. “We are pleased to have played a role in negating the regional fiscal and economic impact created by the relocation of one of the area’s largest employers,” he said.