Manufacturer Takes 179,000 SF

CITY OF INDUSTRY, CA-Fortune 500 diversified manufacturer Leggett & Platt Inc. has signed a seven-year lease for a 179,000-sf warehouse and manufacturing facility at 16040 Stephens St. where it will consolidate operations from two facilities in Pico Rivera, according to Newmark.

Michael Fowler of the Los Angeles office of Newmark, which represented the Carthage, MO-based manufacturer, tells GlobeSt.com that the move is also an expansion for Leggett & Platt, which occupies about 110,000 sf of leased space in the two Pico Rivera facilities.Fowler and Richard Madison of Newmark's Rutherford, NJ office represented Leggett & Platt. Madison, who began working on the transaction approximately 18 months ago, says that the most challenging aspect of meeting the client's requirements was the low vacancy in the City of Industry industrial market, where rates have been rising in what Madison termed "the highest-priced industrial district" in Los Angeles County.Financial terms of the Leggett & Platt deal were not disclosed, but asking rates for comparable space run about 40 cents per sf per month, triple net. Regardless of rates, "Good spaces can be very difficult to find" because of the low vacancy in the City of Industry and other L.A. industrial districts, Madison notes.Leggett & Platt's lease is with landlord the Maybek Co., a locally based private investment group, which was represented by Jay Dick of the Ontario office of CB Richard Ellis and John Hollingsworth of CBRE's Commerce office. Leggett & Platt is already utilizing some space in the building on a temporary basis, according to Madison, while the landlord carries out a number of renovations on the remaining space. The Stephens Street building was constructed in 1972 and is of single-story, concrete tilt-up construction.