Skechers to get a huge warehouse
One of the country’s largest warehouses will be built in Moreno Valley for Skechers USA Inc., the Manhattan Beach shoe manufacturer said Tuesday.
Skechers has agreed to be the sole occupant of a 1.8-million-square-foot building it will use to distribute shoes across the United States and Canada. The rectangular building near the 215 and 60 freeways in Riverside County will be half a mile long.
“We believe this is the largest industrial lease by a single tenant under one roof ever in the United States,” said real estate broker Darla Longo of CB Richard Ellis, the Los Angeles brokerage that represented both Skechers and landlord HF Logistics I in the transaction.
Longo declined to reveal the price of the lease, but an industry expert who asked not to be identified because details of negotiations were confidential valued it at about $100 million based on current rents in the Riverside County neighborhood.
HF Logistics, an affiliate of Moreno Valley industrial property developer Highland Fairview, should have the building ready by January 2009, said Paul Galliher, senior vice president of distribution for Skechers.
It will consolidate operations now in five buildings in Ontario.
“Having everything all under one roof will obviously improve our efficiency,” Galliher said. He said it would cost “well over $100 million” to build.
The bulk of Skechers shoes are made in Asia and shipped through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Galliher said. It also has operations in Italy, Romania, Brazil and Mexico.
At the new facility, shoes will be removed from shipping containers and placed on shelves as high as 42 feet. Robots will roam the aisles, pulling out pairs of shoes to fill orders from Skechers stores and other retailers.
It will take about 800 employees to operate the center, with the payroll swelling to about 1,100 during the peak back-to-school season, Galliher said. The customers whom Skechers targets are generally ages 12 to 30.
With its proximity to the ports, the Inland Empire “is one of the most dynamic industrial and distribution markets in the country,” Longo said.
“It’s a key logistic center for the world, really.”
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