Emanuel Torbati, Manager of locally based Waterfall Center, LLC (“Waterfall”) engaged Strom Commercial Real Estate (“Strom Commercial”) as its broker to assist in the assembly of various parcels in the block of land located between 7th and 8th Avenues and Broadway and “C” Street. Waterfall’s intention is to redevelop the entire block into a mixed use commercial development project within the next 3 – 5 years.

Strom Commercial’s involvement in the assembly began with the sale to Waterfall in late 2007 of the 3 story art deco building located at 701 “C” Street at the corner of 7th Avenue and “C” Street. The building is located on a 5,000 square foot lot and accompanied a 5,000 square foot parking lot for the building. Current tenants include H2A Architects on the third floor and a restaurant/club located in the remainder of the building, including the basement. Both tenants were procured by Strom Commercial.

Thereafter, Waterfall engaged Strom Commercial to pursue the 34,000 square foot building with a 19 space gated parking lot located at 1060 8th Avenue owned by Alcott Estates and controlled by local property owner, Bob Houck. Strom Commercial immediately negotiated a deal for the entire parcel within days of the property coming onto the market. The transaction closed in the Spring of 2008. The entire building was occupied by Woodbury Architectural School whose lease ran out in August 2008. Since Woodbury vacated the building Strom Commercial has been in the process of negotiating new lease deals for building in order to provide Waterfall with cash flow prior to it’s redevelopment of the block.

After that Waterfall engaged Strom Commercial to negotiate the purchase of the last parcel needed by Waterfall to own and control the entire block. Strom Commercial successfully negotiated the purchase and sale of the property located at 1018-1020 8th Avenue from an owner who initially had no intention of selling his building which housed his company, MindGruve, LLC. The 2,000 square foot parcel was the final piece to giving Waterfall complete ownership of the block which will benefit from Waterfall’s eventual redevelopment.

Over the period of less than a year Strom Commercial demonstrated its ability to successfully and discreetly assist a developer in assembling an entire block in the core section of downtown San Diego thus further demonstrating its capacity as a full service brokerage firm.