Stable Demand Foreseen for Commercial Sites

Demand for most classes of commercial property will remain stable in Southern California this year and will probably not rise much before year-end, said speakers at the annual UCLA Extension/Los Angeles Times commercial real estate forecast last week in Beverly Hills.

The region’s fundamentally sound economy will prevent demand for office and industrial space from dropping much more than it already has, speakers said, while the Southland’s housing shortage ensures that apartment buildings will remain filled with renters.

Despite the downturn, commercial properties in Southern California remain attractive to investors, said Roy March, president of investment advisory firm Eastdil Realty Co. March and others at the conference said large institutional investors, particularly pension funds, consider apartment buildings and industrial properties in Southern California to be stable investments in times of economic uncertainty.

Investors are less sanguine about office properties, according to the conference consensus, but experts believe demand for office space will eventually increase after falling off substantially in the last year.

The event included the presentation of the annual UCLA Extension/Los Angeles Times Real Estate Forecast Award. This year’s winner was developer Jerry Snyder of J.H. Snyder Co., whose 50-year career includes such projects as Museum Square and Wilshire Courtyard in the Miracle Mile district of Los Angeles, the Water Garden office project in Santa Monica and the Bridge shopping center at Howard Hughes Center in Westchester.