Investors attracted to Conejo Valley commercial properties
By John Loesing
Acorn Staff Writer

One major Conejo Valley shopping center has been sold and two others are currently available, making this a busy season for commercial real estate investors looking to capitalize on fluctuating markets.

Merged Centers, L.P., a partnership controlled by Goldman Sachs, sold the 455,500 square-foot Janss Marketplace in Thousand Oaks last month for more than $20 million.

Oak Park Place in Oak Park is being sold for a reported $11.6 million while the asking price for The Village at Newbury Park is $9.1 million.

"I know the trade area and I know how tough it is to get into the trade area," said Sandy Sigal, CEO of NewMark Merrill Companies, the new Janss owner.

"With its location, the surrounding business and residential base and impressive lineup of tenants, we should be able to continue to improve the shopping environment as well as operating cash flow," Sigal added.

The 40-year-old Janss mall underwent major renovations in the Mann Theaters.

For the 29,600 square-foot Oak Park shopping center, the cost equates to $400 per rentable foot, a price that builder Gary Safady of O&S Holdings in Los Angeles calls "aggressive."

But Safady also said, "It’s a growing market. There’s a lot of local buyers and it’s very desirable area … It’s only getting better."

With its soft pastels and Mediterranean appeal, Oak Park Place has become a trendy gathering place for customers who like to sip cappuccino and dine outdoors.

Residents objected to a Texaco gas station that had been proposed for the site, opting instead for the upscale strip mall. Once the development issues were resolved, Safady opened it in 1999.

"It’s very tough to build new product and cities have a very exact idea about what they want," Sigal said.

Thousand Oaks currently is debating the merits of a new retail center next to the Civic Arts Plaza. Developer Rick Caruso, who built the Promenade in the Westlake portion of Thousand Oaks and the Commons in Calabasas has proposed an interactive entertainment center that includes theaters.

Despite pricey rents, Caruso’s two local malls remain practically full.

"Thousand Oaks and Ventura County are fortunate to be in what I would describe as a pocket of economic vitality not necessarily shared by many other regions of the country. That’s because we have a continually growing, diverse economy," said Gary Wartik, Thousand Oaks manager of economic development.

Wartik said the 23,600 square-foot Village at Newbury Park is part of larger 300-acre commercial site owned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The mall fronts a trio of big box retailers, including one of the top Home Depot performers in the nation.

Both the Newbury Park and Oak Park malls are listed by Wayne Pridgen of Remax Commercial.

Pridgen said two residential subdivision under construction nearby—including Dos Vientos—will add 3,600 new homes and 8,000 to 10,000 new shoppers to the area.

Whether Conejo Valley malls will continue to remain hot property isn’t known, especially in light of the current recession.

"There is darn good occupancy, but it is a deceptive number because the highly visible retail is doing great. I think there’s some retail that has some latent vacancy out there," said Sigal.

According to a study by research firm F.W. Dodge, commercial real estate’s 20 percent growth rate in the 1990s was double the rate of population growth for the decade.

But while occupancy everywhere else in the country slid noticeably following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Wartik said commercial vacancy rates are a miniscule 3 percent in Thousand Oaks. He gives credit to the economic stimulus provided by Amgen, the city’s largest employer.

The biosciences division of Baxter Healthcare Corp. recently moved to Thousand Oaks from Glendale and will bringing another 900 to 1,000 jobs over the next three years, according to Wartik.

"We’ve been fortunate in getting companies like that coming to our region and frankly, when a community has jobs everything else falls into place. Working people do what? They spend money and they spend money the majority of the time in their own community."

The Conejo Valley median household income easily tops $80,000, making it a shoppers’ paradise and a lucrative market for commercial real estate owners, Wartik said.

Conejo Valley also has the lowest office vacancy in Ventura County. Third quarter vacancies in Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Westlake Village and Thousand Oaks were 9.7 percent, according to broker CB Richard Ellis, well below Los Angeles averages.