Los Angeles Flower Seller Acquires Commerce Warehouse

Spring has sprung in Los Angeles’ industrial corridor as a local importer and wholesaler of fresh-cut flowers plants deeper roots in the region in a larger warehouse.

Holland Flower Market acquired a 91,010-square-foot facility at 5555 East Slauson Avenue in Commerce for $34.1 million, Hoodline reported. BCI sold the building to Holland Flower Market in an owner-user deal. The warehouse will serve as the company’s new headquarters.

The move pulls Holland Flower Market farther from downtown’s traditional Flower District and closer to the freight infrastructure that increasingly drives wholesale distribution businesses. While Holland Flower Market has long relied on off-site facilities for storage and shipping, the Commerce purchase is expected to consolidate more of those logistics functions into a single hub while keeping the company tied to its downtown wholesale network.

The Commerce facility, built in 2015, boasts attractive features for industrial users, including 32-foot clear heights, early suppression fast response sprinklers, dock-high loading doors, a large truck court and freeway access with proximity to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. In addition to the industrial features, the property has 9,994 square feet of two-story office space alongside warehouse capacity geared toward refrigerated storage, staging and regional distribution operations. The building was marketed as particularly suited for cold-chain logistics, making it a natural fit for a flower wholesaler handling perishable inventory.

As industrial rents increase, some occupiers like Holland Flower Market are choosing to lock in long-term operating capacity through acquisitions rather than compete in a still-tight leasing market. The strategy is gaining traction even as Los Angeles industrial fundamentals soften from pandemic-era highs. Greater Los Angeles saw 934,025 square feet of positive absorption in the first quarter, though vacancy ticked up to 5.4 percent and total availability increased to 8.1 percent, according to CBRE’s first quarter report.

— Chris Malone Méndez