Introducing Space Dirt 🚀 🏢

If your New Year's resolution involves keeping a better eye on the SoCal commercial real estate ("CRE") market for the space industry, don't worry, we got you!

In 2023, my partner, Ted Simpson, and I will be sending an easily digestible monthly newsletter focused on the space industry and CRE.

If this isn't for you, simply reply to this email with the word "Stop" or unsubscribe below. Otherwise, let's get to it!

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2022 REAL ESTATE HIGHLIGHTS

What kind of newsletter would we be if we didn't take a moment to highlight some of the more notable real estate deals of 2022? And while it's nice to look backward, it's important to remember that these deals often help shape the next wave of transactions we'll see in 2023. 

One more thing. While this newsletter will primarily concentrate on the South Bay market, we thought you might want to know what's going on up North too. Hence, we included Astra Space's huge new lease as our first highlight. 

1. Bay Area-based aerospace company, Astra Space, signs a 5-year lease for an entire warehouse at 1900 Skyhawk St., Alameda, CA, which includes almost 180,000 square feet of manufacturing and industrial space. Rent payments are set to begin at about $164,750 per month through the first year and escalate to more than $188,000 in its final year, according to public filings. (Source: Costar)

2. ABL Space Systems expanded its El Segundo footprint by leasing 90,000 square feet at 140 Oregon Street. The additional lease comes about a month after the firm signed a deal with the Port of Long Beach to build a spacecraft processing facility across eight acres of land on a pier at the port. (source: The Real Deal)  

3. Epirus Inc. opens its new 100,000-square-foot corporate headquarters in Torrance, California. Previously headquartered in Hawthorne, about 150 employees spanning multiple engineering and business development roles will work at the new Torrance facility, which will serve as the company’s primary research and development facility. Epirus also maintains satellite offices in Hawthorne and Tysons Corner, Virginia. (Source: L.A. Business First)

4. Varda Space Systems signs a 10-year deal for the full 61,000 square feet at 225 S. Aviation Blvd. Varda is moving to El Segundo from its office at 433 Alaska Ave. in Torrance. (Source: Costar)

5. Hadrian Automation raises $90 million to build a second autonomous factory in Torrance. This one is at 19821 S Western Ave. The 100,000-square-foot factory is not far from its first factory location in Hawthorne and will help it triple its current headcount to 120. (source: dot.LA)

6. Morpheus Space raised $28 million in a Series A funding round. The company plans to establish a factory in Dresden, Germany, to produce thousands of propulsion systems annually. At the same time, Morpheus relocated to a new office in El Segundo and plans to expand its sales, business development, contracting, and satellite operations organizations. (source: SpaceNews)7. Impulse Space had a busy year, leasing 60,000 SF at 2651-2653 Manhattan Beach Blvd, Redondo Beach, back in June 2022, AND raising $30M in a seed round of funding from Founders Fund and Lux Capital. (source: Business Wire)

2023 REAL ESTATE HIGHLIGHTS

1. Vast Space announces that it will relocate and expand its company HQ to a newly built facility in Long Beach. The company's facility will consist of two buildings totaling nearly 115,000 square feet. The new structures, which will house the company's business operations as well as a next-generation manufacturing facility, are in the city's Globemaster Corridor Specific Plan, which will help align and reimagine the commercial and industrial areas that used to focus on specific aviation manufacturing. (source: Business Wire)

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

After recapping some of the more significant moves in 2022 and early 2023, we thought it'd be fitting to give you the local space office breakdown and landscape as it currently stands in January 2023.

Office Locations of the Top 27* South Bay Space Companies

*as measured by office footprint

THREE TAKEAWAYS: There's always nuance, but we believe a couple of reasons for this location distribution as it pertains to Greater Los Angeles are:

1. While rents have risen in the South Bay, there's still space available. 

2. Companies looking for larger blocks of space are looking more and more to Long Beach to satisfy their footprint requirements.

3. Talent. The SpaceX effect is real. And with plenty of talent already living in and around the South Bay, continuing to office here (and not having to drastically change their commute or uproot their family) makes business and personal sense.  

That's it. That's the first newsletter for 2023. We have plenty of ideas, but we are open to suggestions, so if you want us to look into something, send us a note.

And, as always, we're here to help you with your real estate needs. 

Best,

Erik Stiebel424-241-4795DRE License #02080746