Laura Clark didn’t grow up around warehouses — or even commercial real estate.
With an education in finance, she expected to build a numbers‑driven career. That changed while she was preparing for a professional finance certification and came across a job opening at real estate research and advisory firm Green Street Advisors focused on financial analysis.
“I entered the world of real estate pretty soon after I graduated, and I have been addicted ever since,” Clark said of an industry that let her work with properties used by very different industries.
Over time, Clark built a resumé that spans nearly every major commercial property type, from hotels and retail to student housing and industrial. That experience now places her at the helm of Rexford Industrial Realty, one of the country’s largest industrial landlords. The Los Angeles–based real estate investment trust controls roughly 51 million square feet across Southern California, concentrated in some of the nation’s most supply‑constrained warehouse markets.
Clark officially became Rexford’s chief executive officer on April 1, following stints as the company’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer. She succeeds co‑founders Michael Frankel and Howard Schwimmer, who expanded Rexford from a 5.5 million‑square‑foot portfolio at the time of its 2013 initial public offering into a nearly $10 billion industrial REIT.
“My career has been focused across all real estate sectors and property types,” Clark told CoStar News. “It’s the accumulation of that experience that positions me for today.”
Clark steps into the role at a delicate point for Southern California industrial real estate. Vacancy has climbed from record lows, tenant decision-making has slowed and developers across the Inland Empire and Los Angeles have pulled back on speculative construction as capital markets tightened.
Rather than promising a sweeping overhaul, Clark is framing Rexford’s next chapter around discipline. That means pruning development plans that no longer hit return targets, recycling capital into higher-performing assets and squeezing more efficiency from buildings the company already owns instead of chasing scale for its own sake.
“The foundation of that strategy is really centered around prudent capital allocation,” Clark said. “We’re going to allocate capital where we drive the highest risk-adjusted return.”
Cross-property lessons
She grew up in Atlanta, earned a finance degree from DePaul University and later completed an MBA at Ball State University.
Before joining Rexford in 2020, in addition to hospitality, offices, higher education-related property and capital markets, she held leadership roles at one of the largest public shopping center owners, Regency Centers, after her research work at Green Street.
At Rexford, Clark is focused on operational efficiency, capital allocation and the returns that can be made on reinvesting in existing properties.
In one example of Rexford's strategy, the company recently chose to sell a planned development site on Green Drive in the city of Industry, California, after receiving what Clark called a premium valuation from an active user, rather than pushing forward with new construction.
At the same time, Rexford is advancing projects where the math still works. Clark pointed to a planned development on Ruffin Road in San Diego, where the company expects the finished property to generate enough value and income to more than justify the cost of building it.
The selective approach reflects a broader pullback from speculative development as industrial landlords reassess risk after years of aggressive warehouse construction.
Reworking the existing portfolio
Clark argues that one of Rexford’s biggest advantages is that much of its value creation does not require ground-up development.
Instead, the company often buys older industrial properties in infill Southern California markets and upgrades them piece by piece. That can mean adding dock-high loading, improving office layouts, expanding truck circulation or upgrading sprinkler systems so tenants can store inventory higher and operate more efficiently.
“It's not about tearing something down and building something new,” Clark said. “It's about investing in the existing real estate.”
The strategy has become especially important as Southern California industrial tenants place greater emphasis on functionality. Clark said access to power has become one of the clearest differentiators in today’s leasing market, particularly as warehouses support more automation and energy-intensive operations.
“If you’re able to deliver excess power in a building today, it differentiates your building,” she said.
Rexford is also leaning heavily into what Clark calls “operational rigor.” Part of that effort has centered on lowering overhead costs after general and administrative expenses climbed above peer averages in recent years.
Clark said Rexford has already reduced general and administrative expenses to roughly 6% of revenue, below peer averages, as the company focuses more aggressively on operational efficiency.
The push comes as investors increasingly scrutinize industrial REITs after years of outsized pandemic-era growth. Warehouses have been coming online faster than companies can fill them, with developers completing about 150 million square feet in a single quarter at the peak — nearly double the pre‑pandemic pace — and the market is still digesting that glut, according to CoStar. As a result, tenants have far more leverage than they did coming out of the pandemic, with industrial availability now at 9.6% nationwide as new space continues to outpace leasing.
Public warehouse landlords are now facing slower rent acceleration, softer occupancy and higher financing costs, forcing executives to prove they can generate earnings growth even in a flatter market.
Betting on Southern California
Despite the slowdown, Clark remains deeply bullish on infill Southern California industrial real estate, a market Rexford has spent years consolidating.
The company executed 4.1 million square feet of lease deals in the latest quarter, the highest such volume in its history. Clark said retention rates and occupancy also exceeded internal expectations as tenant activity improved.
Industrial construction in infill Southern California has slowed dramatically, while regulations such as California’s AB 98 have added new hurdles for warehouse development. Those supply constraints are helping prop up demand for existing warehouses, Clark argues.
“The dynamics in this market are underappreciated,” Clark added.
For Clark, that means Rexford’s future may depend less on building massive amounts of new space and more on owning strategically located warehouses that become increasingly difficult to replicate.