|
Orange County Business Journal,
June 28, 2004
By MATHEW PADILLA
A company that manages shipping to 7-Eleven and
Home Depot stores leased a 184,000-square-foot industrial
building in Fullerton in what is sure to be one of
the biggest lease deals of the year.
Concord, N.C.-based Cardinal Logistics Management
Inc. signed a five-year, $4.4 million lease for the
building at 566 Gilbert St. earlier this month. The
site is part of the Fullerton Crossroads Warehouse
and Distribution Center.
Cardinal is set to deliver cabinets to Home Depot
stores in Orange County, according to a source close
to the deal. It also plans to serve other customers
from the building, according to Diane Caldemeyer,
senior vice president of operations with Cardinal.
Cardinal is expected to move in next month, according
to Caldemeyer.
In recent years, Cardinal has been expanding its
business of delivering home cabinets bought at Home
Depot, Lowe’s and other stores.
Cardinal already runs a distribution center for
7-Eleven Inc. in an adjacent building on Gilbert.
Cardinal and its subcontractors occupy 65,000 square
feet in the building and make nightly deliveries
of fresh food to about 700 7-Eleven stores, Caldemeyer
said.
“It’s been a good, solid operation for
us,” Caldemeyer said of the Gilbert building. “It
made good sense for us to look at Fullerton” for
new space.
Cardinal employs about 100 people in the county
and plans to hire some 50 more as part of the expansion,
Caldemeyer said.
The shipping company plans to bring in cabinets
via rail and send them out on trucks, sources said.
The lease deal is a boon to San Francisco-based
landlord RREEF, a pension fund adviser, which in
2001 bought Fullerton Crossroads from Foster City-based
developer Legacy Partners Commercial.
In another deal at the site, Plasti-Form, a unit
of Australia’s Spotless Enterprises Inc., signed
a five-year, $2.6 million lease for 98,000 square
feet at 570 Gilbert. Plasti-Form, which sells hangers
to stores, is set to relocate its West Coast operations
from another facility in Fullerton on Artesia Boulevard.
Fullerton Crossroads, near Fullerton Municipal Airport,
consists of nine industrial buildings totaling 1.3
million square feet. The distribution center is about
90% leased, including the two recent deals.
Brokers said industrial leasing activity has picked
up in the county in the past few months.
"We have seen a significant increase in larger
lease transactions," said Jeff Chiate, a broker
with Cushman & Wakefield Inc.
While manufacturers have been moving jobs to China,
distribution companies serving Orange County have
been expanding here, Chiate said. Distribution companies
employ fewer workers than manufacturers and aren’t
as gravely affected by the county’s high housing
and business costs.
Fullerton is good spot for shipping companies, according
to Chiate, since it borders Los Angeles County, is
close to the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles,
and has access to the Inland Empire via the Riverside
(91) Freeway.
Chiate, along with Rick Ellison and Peter Sowa of
Cushman & Wakefield, represented landlord RREEF
in the two deals. Van Lloyd and Clyde Stauff of Colliers
Seeley International Inc. represented Cardinal in
its lease deal. Greg Ozborne and Jeff Read of Grubb & Ellis
Co. represented Plasti-Form.
top of page
|
