IAMC News Briefs—Week of April 10, 2023
By John Salustri
CONNECT CRE—Two IAMC members—Tesla and Prologis--have come together on a 149,000-square-foot lease in Hayward, CA. That represents half of the total asset, the other half of which is still available to lease. Mum’s the word, apparently, on Tesla’s planned use of the space, which follows by two months its creation of a new global engineering and artificial intelligence (AI) headquarters some 22 miles away in Palo Alto, in a former HP facility. KBC Advisors spoke for Prologis in the Hayward deal.
https://www.connectcre.com/stories/tesla-leases-150k-sf-at-hayward-industrial-facility/
And FYI, https://www.connectcre.com/stories/tesla-unveils-new-engineering-hq-in-palo-alto/
SUPPLY CHAIN DIVE—Setting a completion date of June 2024, FedEx has launched a consolidation strategy designed, in the words of president and CEO Raj Subramaniam, to make the firm “leaner, more agile and better positioned to . . . help customers compete.” It will also produce some $6 billion in operational cost savings. The consolidation will blend FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Services and other units into Federal Express Corporation. FedEx Freight, the firm’s LTL provider, will remain standalone.
https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/fedex-consolidate-express-ground-one-operating-company-drive-network-20/646848/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202023-04-05%20Breaking%20News:%20Supply%20Chain%20%5Bissue:49368%5D&utm_term=Supply%20Chain%20Dive
COMMERCIAL OBSERVER—Rexford Industrial Realty is showing ongoing faith in its namesake food group. The REIT has just plunked down $357.2 million for three SoCal industrial assets, bringing its 2023 total so far to $762 million and positioning it to clear $3 billion by New Year’s Day. This comes after a 2022 that saw the REIT complete $2.4 billion in acquisitions. Rexford now owns a reported 2% of the Southern California industrial market. One of the newest portfolio additions, and the largest of the three, is located in San Diego, while the remaining two are in Los Angeles’ South Bay.
https://commercialobserver.com/2023/04/california-rexford-industrial-357m-warehouses/?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyru&utm_term=2023-07-04-31093221
COMMERCIAL PROPERTY EXECUTIVE—A JV of George Urban Advisors, Five Horizons Partners and DRA Advisors has snatched up seven industrial assets in Orange and Los Angeles counties for a reported $263 million. According to CommercialEdge data, the seller was Link Logistics. Occupancy rates, upside potential and the presence of infill possibilities were the drivers of the buy. The portfolio, with five assets located in Los Angeles County and two in Orange, paces out to 851,131 square feet. A CBRE partner spoke for the seller, while the JV represented itself.
https://www.commercialsearch.com/news/link-logistics-sells-socal-portfolio-for-263m/
TRANSPORT DIVE—Aurora Innovation, a driverless vehicle leader, reveals that it has hit the tech capabilities needed to haul freight without a driver, with plans to start hauling goods driverlessly between Dallas and Houston by the end of 2024. The safety case, headlined by improved responses to collisions with other vehicles and property, is set for completion by the end of this year. “Over the last 18 months, Aurora has released dozens of capabilities through six Aurora Driver Beta updates, incrementally increasing . . . autonomous performance, safety and reliability in pilot hauls for companies like FedEx, Werner, Schneider, and Uber Freight,” said co-founder and chief product officer Sterling Anderson in a blog post.
https://www.transportdive.com/news/aurora-achieves-feature-complete-technology-milestone/646893/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202023-04-07%20Transport%20Dive%20%5Bissue:49466%5D&utm_term=Transport%20Dive
LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS—A warning shot of sorts was fired across the bows of container ships in SoCal last week. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach reopened for the Friday evening, April 7, shift, after a temporary work stoppage. The disruption in container flow started only the night before. Low cargo volumes reportedly minimized the impact of the outage. Contract negotiations have been ongoing since last May.
https://www.dailynews.com/2023/04/07/la-long-beach-port-terminals-reopen-as-dockworkers-return/