Ashley Furniture Leases 683,000 SF

REDLANDS, CA-Ashley Furniture of Arcadia, WI has leased a newly completed 683,000-sf building that is one of three at ProLogis Park Redlands, a project of the Denver-based ProLogis REIT. The furniture maker says the new warehouse and distribution facility will complement its other distribution facilities in Southern California.The ProLogis Park Redlands development, at the southeast corner of San Bernardino and Mountain View avenues, is part of a ProLogis Southern California portfolio that is one of the company's largest concentrations of industrial space in the country. Charles McPhee, SVP at ProLogis, calls the Ashley Furniture transaction "one of the largest to be signed by any industrial developer in the Inland Empire over the past year."Terms of the Ashley's five-year lease were not disclosed, but asking rates for the space are 33 cents per sf per month. ProLogis was represented by Mike Daley of Colliers International and Ashley Furniture was represented by Aaron Hodgdon of CAM Realty.Ashley Furniture Industries Inc., one of the largest manufacturers of home furnishing products in the US, also owns and operates a one-million-sf distribution center in Colton, not far from Redlands. Todd Wanek, chief executive of Ashley, says that the new facility in Redlands will serve stores across California and six other western states.The new Ashley Furniture distribution facility reflects both the continuing growth of the Inland Empire as a distribution and logistics hub and the rapid growth of the Inland Empire housing market in recent years. As thousands of new homes have been built in Riverside and San Bernardino counties during the recent housing boom, furniture makers have moved in with dozens of new showrooms and retail locations to serve the growing market.