Real estate companies seek opportunities in a distressed market

By Hannah Madans | LABJ

For Mid-Wilshire-based Decron Properties Corp., the Covid-19 pandemic could present some unique real estate opportunities.

“We are actively looking to continue to grow in Southern California, the Bay Area and Seattle,” said Daniel Nagel, the company’s chief financial officer.

“We are not feeling a tremendous pressure on our portfolio because we have so much weighted to multifamily,” he added.

This position, Nagel explained, will allow the company to be “aggressive and find opportunities.”

Of course, Decron isn’t the only company sensing buying opportunities in a distressed market.

Local developers and property owners who say this could be a good time to make investments include downtown-based Rising Realty Partners, Westwood-based Stockdale Capital Partners, Santa Monica-based MJW Investments, Westwood-based Entrada Partners, Santa Monica-based Vista Investments Group and Woodland Hills-based CGI Strategies.

Chris Rising, chief executive of Rising Realty, said the company was looking to buy assets and to expand its third-party business around property management.

“At the expense of sounding like we’re trying to be opportunistic, because we’re not, the reality is people are confused on how we are going to bring people back to work and what we are going to do,” Rising said of the company’s property management growth. Rising Realty already works with 2 million square feet of third-party properties, which he expects to grow.

As for acquisitions, Rising expects some good opportunities.

“There will be a mismatch in pricing, and that will create opportunity for us,” he said.