$30-Million Warehouse Deal Ratified : Joint Venture to Develop Major Chino Complex

A $30-million transaction, hailed as the largest known single industrial plant tenant lease ever negotiated in California, has been finalized.

It will create a major warehousing and distribution complex in Chino, in the midst of one of the nation’s real estate “hot spots.”

David A. Wheeler, broker with Majestic Realty Co., and ownership representative in the transition, said Pacific Coast Warehouse Services and Majestic have entered into a joint venture to design and build two buildings totaling 625,000 square feet on a Schaefer Avenue site, just east of Monte Verde Avenue, at a cost of $20 million.

Pacific Coast Warehouse, a 60-year-old national firm, is one of the largest of its kind serving the West Coast, dealing primarily in packaged dry goods and consumer products from its present facilities in Vernon. John Alphson, vice president of Public Investment Corp., represented Pacific Coast Warehouse in the major lease arrangement.

Occupancy Next May

Majestic, founded in 1948, is a City of Industry firm that has developed business properties throughout California and six other states.

Work has started on the 35-acre project, and occupancy is scheduled for next May, Wheeler said. The development will include two one-story structures of 325,000 square feet and 300,000 square feet, cross-dock loading and rail service. About 15,000 square feet of space in one of the buildings will serve as the new headquarters for Pacific Coast Warehouse.

Wheeler said the parties agreed to a 20-year commitment which includes the initial term and subsequent extensions.

Majestic will serve as the developer and Commerce Construction Co. Inc., its wholly owned subsidiary, which designed the project, will serve as contractor.

The new facility will offer high-density racking storage, a streamlined stock locator system and highly sophisticated handling equipment, the warehousing firm said, and will allow for additional product capabilities in a centralized and convenient location.

Fast-Growing Area

“The central location of the property,” Charles Hart, president of Pacific Coast, said, “is excellent for the effective distribution of (our) products and concurrently, the project will provide the tri-county (Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino) economy with additional business activity, employment and services.”

The Chino region, within the highly active real estate market of the so-called Inland Empire of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, is rated as one of the fastest growing residential, commercial and industrial areas in the state, while the entire Inland Empire is considered one of the nation’s real estate “hot spots.”

The Chino General Plan incorporates a concentration of commercial, industrial and business park facilities along the Schaefer Avenue corridor.