Greetings!

In this issue:

• We’ll recap some real estate highlights

• I talk about what I’m seeing in space company leasing

• I share an interesting "what I’ve learned” piece from investor François Chopard

• An invitation to a space industry gathering 🍻 co-hosted by yours truly

Enjoy!

Was this email forwarded to you?

REAL ESTATE HIGHLIGHTS

Cambium subleases Vast’s former 6,000-square-foot El Segundo office at 601 and 607 E El Segundo Blvd, El Segundo, CA (source: Me).

Rangeview, still in stealth mode, leases a 4,000 SF office in El Segundo (source: Me, again!).

GITAI raises $29 million for space robotics business and recently opened an 11,000 SF flex office at 2255 Dominguez Way, Torrance, CA (source: SpaceNews).

Rocket Lab leases Virgin Orbit’s former 150,701 SF Building at 4022 E Conant St, Long Beach, CA. Rocket Lab plans to use the space and other equipment to produce its Neutron, a reusable launcher that can power humans and other craft into space (source: Business Wire).

WHAT MAKES A SPACE BUILDING

After helping a handful of space companies find new homes and currently working with several more, I thought I’d share some insight on the type of buildings that space companies move into.

First off, this may come as no surprise, but in Southern California, particularly the South Bay-Long Beach area, it’s all about location, location, location. And then, like most any company, budget considerations.

Building off “The SpaceX Effect” I spoke about in the very first Space Dirt newsletter, companies want to be in the talent-rich South Bay region. And, in many cases, they’ll figure out the rest of the details later.

Some examples of this approach include Varda leasing a former one-stop RV store and service center in Torrance as their first building and then, showing they weren’t afraid of a little construction, moving their HQ to the former Globe Brand HQ. Launcher leasing DazPak’s 24,000 SF Hawthorne building is another example of a space company repurposing a building from a different industry to fit its unique needs.

Perhaps, not quite as dramatic a conversion as above, the leasing of flex buildings and retrofitting them to fit one’s requirements has become quite popular with space companies. For those unfamiliar, flex buildings typically have at least a basic office setup and ample space for manufacturing. This usually makes for a smoother buildout and a quicker transition to get up and running.

Below, I supply a list of flex-building transactions in Long Beach and Torrance. Why those two cities? Because there’s a paucity of larger buildings (over 100,000 SF) available in the rest of the South Bay region. These companies are using the bigger footprint to accommodate for planned future growth while also enjoying the cheaper rents currently found in Torrance and Long Beach.

Newly built flex building conversions over 100,000 SF include:

• Epirus leases a building in Torrance

• Hadrian leases a building in Torrance

• Relativity Space leases a building in Long Beach

• Rocket Lab leases a building in Long Beach

• SpinLaunch leases a building in Long Beach

• Vast leases a building in Long Beach

Depending on your needs and budget, often, it’s easiest to lease or sublease a second-generation space building. Recent sublease examples of this include the two highlights I noted above (Cambium and Rocket Lab) as well as Phase Four’s recent subleasing of Hadrian’s former Hawthorne building. This (obviously) can save you some of the buildout stress while also paying less than market rent for the remaining lease term. The challenge can be that, unlike a law firm, where the requirements are somewhat universal, space companies often have specific needs depending on their tech/product and sector.

As the South Bay and Long Beach mature into full-fledged space hubs, the market has tightened and become more competitive. If you’re looking to make a real estate change, it’s important to work with someone who is aware of what is out there (and what will be out there) while also understanding the intricacies of the space business. If you need someone, I know a guy.

WHAT I’M READING (AND ENJOYING!)

📚7 Lessons learned from our 140-aerospace startup investments written by Starburst Accelerator founder François Chopard. The title says it all for this insightful piece. I found #6 the most interesting: techno push and market pull, the one solving a real market problem or client issue will make money, breakthrough technology trying to find its market can take a very long time.

LET’S PARTY 🎉 (OR “NETWORK”)

As you may know, my colleague Ted Simpson and I, along with our friends at KPMG, Goodwin, and Stifel Bank, are hosting an aerospace networking gathering.

If you’d like to attend, RSVP by replying to this email.

The details:

Wednesday, June 21, 2023
4:00 PM – 8:00 PM PDT

Upshift Brewery
339 Indiana St., El Segundo, CA 90245

Hope you can make it!

Thanks for reading.

If you’d like your office and/or manufacturing space or business profiled, let me know. It’s always fun to explore and share the many different components of the space business.

As always, I’m here to help with your real estate needs.

Over and out.

Erik Stiebel
Founder and Vice President
CA DRE License #02080746
(c) +1 424.241.4795
[email protected]