New Owner Has Plans for Gerry Building
The Gerry Building in the Los Angeles Fashion District is ready for another makeover.
The historic building was renovated in 2001 and transformed from a semi-vacant manufacturing space into a showcase of wholesale showrooms for the apparel industry.
Now the new owner, LaeRoc Partners LLC of Hermosa Beach, Calif., wants to put the building on the map with more renovations and big marketing plans.
While the company’s objective is to maximize profits for its investors, there does not appear to be any plan to flip the building in the current hot real estate market.
“We want to stay the course. We want to be part of The Intersection. We’re glad Larry [Hudson, the building’s general manager] stayed on, and we’re excited about being in the Fashion District,” said LaeRoc’s Julie Sadigursky.
The Gerry is part of The Intersection, which also includes The New Mart, the California Market Center and the Cooper Design Space at the corner of Ninth and Los Angeles streets, as well as founding members Designers & Agents and the Fashion District Business Improvement District. The landlords of the four buildings have joined efforts to bring more business to their showrooms through marketing, networking and other means.
Gerry tenants said they were happy to hear that Hudson had signed with LaeRoc. Hudson was formerly director of asset management for the building’s previous owner, Santa Monica, Calif.–based MJW Investments. He will continue to oversee leasing and development.
As part of the building’s new plans, Hudson said LaeRoc intends to replace some of the glass and windows in the building with period glass as well as renovate the lobby area, possibly in time for the October market week.
LaeRoc executives and Hudson are also working on marketing plans aimed at bringing more visibility to the building.
“We have a fair amount of money dedicated for rebranding the building,” Hudson said.
New logos and graphics are being created and efforts are being made to increase tenants’ business hours. Many showrooms currently operate on an appointment-only basis.
Since LaeRoc took over, Hudson has signed on a number of new showrooms, including Jamerica, the Asian distributor of True Religion denim; GGSI, a contemporary line for men and women; and Necktar, a contemporary women’s line. Hudson is close to signing leases with several others.
“Things are moving fast here,” Hudson said. “The key thing is to have as many people open as possible to do business every day. A lot of the urban brands do things differently by appointments, but we want to get more people over here during shows and other times.”
The building is about 80 percent to 85 percent leased.
LaeRoc is an equity fund supported by investors and headed by Kim Benjamin. The 15-year-old company has a number of downtown holdings, including the Coast Federal Savings building at Ninth and Hill streets, a condominium project in the Arts District; office space on West Sixth Street, and a development site near Chinatown. It also owns hotels in Hawaii and California, having recently opened the renovated Belamar Hotel (formerly Barnabey’s) in Manhattan Beach, Calif.
LaeRoc paid $14.3 million for the building and closed escrow in July.
The Gerry, built in the 1940s right after World War II, is one of the few buildings in Los Angeles designed in a “Streamline Moderne” architectural style. Architects Herbert O. Alden and Maurice Fleishman drafted the original plans for the building. Fleishman went on to design such notable structures as the Westwood Towers, the Del Rey Yacht Club in Marina del Rey, Calif., and the Beverly Hills Municipal Courthouse.
The sale of the Gerry Building comes on the heels of the sale of the California Market Center to Jamison Properties for $135 million.
“There’s high investor optimism in the L.A. garment district right now,” said CB Richard Ellis broker Ed Rosenthal, who helped seal the deal between LaeRoc and MJW.
