How Matthews™ Repositioned an Infill Industrial Opportunity for a Successful Closing
Matthews™ represented the seller in the sale of a 13.29-acre industrial development site at 10990 N Woodside Ave. Formerly operated as a drive-in movie theater, the property represented one of Southern California’s largest undeveloped infill industrial land opportunities and generated approximately 30 initial offers. The Matthews™ agent navigated a dramatically changing development and capital markets environment while maintaining transaction momentum. The buyer ultimately acquired the site for the development of approximately 300,000 square feet of logistics space. Challenge The transaction launched in late spring 2022 as logistics demand approached its cyclical peak, but rapidly rising interest rates subsequently reduced debt and equity availability for speculative, unentitled land acquisitions. Most initial bidders had underwritten a 300,000-plus-square-foot, single-tenant cross-dock facility, a strategy that became less viable as comparable large-format supply increased across Southern California. The Matthews™ agent also navigated an evolving entitlement process and additional regulatory uncertainty surrounding California AB 98. These factors required the transaction structure and development strategy to evolve substantially during escrow. Strategy Rather than continuing with the original unentitled land structure, the agent repositioned the transaction around a fully entitled closing, shifting entitlement execution into the escrow period and reducing development uncertainty for the buyer. The site plan was also reimagined around smaller, divisible tenant footprints instead of relying exclusively on a single large distribution user. The Matthews™ agent helped align the revised development concept with the deeper tenant pool and changing availability of development capital. This approach required coordinated adjustments to the entitlement strategy, escrow structure, and transaction timeline while preserving the seller’s objective of monetizing the property. Result The Matthews™ agent successfully guided the transaction through a significant capital markets reset and a materially revised development plan, resulting in a successful close. The fully entitled structure created a more executable path for the buyer while allowing the seller to complete the disposition and pursue an exchange into income-producing assets. By adapting the project to smaller, divisible tenant configurations, the agent helped reposition the site for the demand environment that had emerged during the transaction. The closing demonstrated the value of maintaining flexibility across entitlement, product design, and transaction structure as market conditions changed.
Chris Nelson
First Vice President & Senior Director
