Service Craft, which maintains 11 facilities totaling 4.5 million sf in the Greater Los Angeles area, says the new facility will provide additional space to meet the growing demands for consumer packaged goods and electronics retailers in the Southern California. The new site will also provide space for ServiceCraft customers who need both temperature-controlled space and dry storage, the company says, and its headquarters will be moved there as well.

The new logistics facility is on Knott Avenue near the I-5, I-91 and I-605 freeways. Among its features are 150 truck doors, 90,000 sf feet of temperature controlled space, and 40,000 sf of office space that will house the corporate offices and administrative staff for the Southern California business unit of ServiceCraft.

The ServiceCraft facility is part of a $90 million, 55-acre Overton Moore development that formerly was a Lucky Stores supermarket distribution center. The 1.4 million-sf project is planned for completion by the fall of 2003. It will comprise nine buildings when completed, including the renovation of three existing buildings and the addition of six new structures.

Steve Batcheller of CB Richard Ellis tells GlobeSt.com that the deal is believed to be the largest industrial lease in L.A. or Orange County this year, both in square footage and dollar volume. Batcheller represented ServiceCraft, along with CB's John Porter, while Overton Moore was represented by Jerry Gillman, Steve Calhoun and Pat Remolacio of Colliers Seeley International.

"As the volume in our ports continues to pick up, logistics firms continue to grow as a segment of our overall industrial market," Batcheller tells GlobeSt.com. He estimates that logistics firms occupy 12 million to 15 million sf of the 125 million sf in the Mid-Counties industrial submarket, which includes cities in both Los Angeles County and Orange County, among them Buena Park.

Overton Moore Properties, one of the largest developers in Southern California, recently sold its 1.9-million-sf Port Los Angeles Distribution Center in San Pedro for $120 million. The firm's financial partner is El Segundo-based Pacific Coast Capital Partners, a private real estate investment firm that provides equity and debt financing to developers.