There is a frenzy around opportunity zone investments and the capital gains tax benefits that come with them, but for commercial real estate investors and developers, 1031 exchanges will likely provide better tax benefits. That is because there are mitigating circumstances to receiving the tax benefit from the qualified opportunity zone. The capital gain must be reinvested, the most “misunderstood” aspect of the qualified opportunity zone feature. The most misunderstood part

The office vacancy rate in Los Angeles increased in the first quarter. According to a market report from Savills, the office vacancy rate bumped up 50 basis points in the first quarter. While the increase is nominal, the increase shows the impact of new office product coming online. By comparison, class-A and new construction product continues to lease quickly, and the vacancy rate for that segment of the market decreased by 110 basis points. “The delivery of additional inven

Landside Access Modernization Program According to LAWA, LAMP is “a new ground transportation network” to help relieve traffic congestion, while improving the overall experience for passengers before and while they are at the airport. The LAMP components include: Automated People Mover. The 2.25-mile APM is geared toward reducing the number of automobiles traveling into and out of the airport. The system will feature six stations (within and outside of the airport terminal ar

Los Angeles multifamily investment sales volumes ranked among the highest in the country last year. According to research from JLL, Los Angeles ranked third among major metros for investment sales in 2018, behind New York and Dallas. Sales totaled $7.5 billion dollars, a 36.3% increase over 2017 investment sales. The healthy local economy, including job and GDP growth, is driving the investment sales activity. Read more here https://www.globest.com/2019/04/11/l-a-2018-investm

The California Energy Commission has adopted new green energy policies as part of the 2019 Building Energy Efficiency Standards that will take a major step toward achieving its net-zero energy goals. Part of the policy, Title 24 CalGreen regulation, includes a new solar mandate that will require solar installation on all new residential construction projects that obtain a building permit starting January 1, 2020. Read more here https://www.globest.com/2019/04/11/new-policy-re

California Assembly Bill “AB 802” requires buildings over 50,000 sq. ft. to report their energy usage on an annual basis to the California Energy Commission (CEC). The City of LA’s EBEWE requires all buildings over 20,000 sq. ft. to report energy and water usage to DBS by June 1, 2019. Read more here https://www.greeneconome.com/ebewe-city-of-la/

L.A. commercial property owners are pushing the LADWP to expand its pilot solar feed-in-tariff program, which allowed property owners to lease rooftop space for solar panels. Estimates that the solar program has a benefit of $0.04 to $0.05 cent per foot benefit on a solar lease on a roof. “An owner can use their rooftop, which is an under-utilized asset for them at this point as a place to generate income.” “It also has other benefits, putting the solar on the roof cools the

California voters in 2020 will have a chance to revise a decades-old tax measure, which if passed would reassess the value of commercial properties every three years. That could raise up to $12 billion in its first few years for counties around the state. While the change to the 1970s-era tax measure, Proposition 13, would be a radical shift, tax assessors say it could be extremely difficult to implement in a reasonable time-frame, according to the Los Angeles Times. Still th