Graphics Firm Lease Among Largest in OC

PLACENTIA, CA-Arlon Graphics has signed a long-term lease agreement with privately held REIT Industrial Income Trust valued at $12.5 million at a former Knott's Berry Farm jams and jellies manufacturing facility here. The 11-year lease was signed for 200 Boysenberry Lane, a 198,000-square-foot property.

Simultaneously, Arlon—best known for its sign, car-wrapping, corporate-imaging and vehicle- and fleet-decoration products—has announced the kickoff of an 18-month expansion project at the new location. The project will allow the 55-year-old company to increase capacity, improve material flow and nearly double the size of its operations.

“This was a challenging assignment on so many different levels,” says Stephen Schloemer, SVP at Colliers International, who, along with executive managing director Bret Hardy, represented Arlon in the lengthy and complicated search. “Issues we had to contend with included those related to the environment; access to surface, air and ocean transportation centers; reliable energy sources; and proximity to its existing workforce, as well as the availability of an additional qualified workforce.”

IIT was represented in the lease transaction by Newmark Grubb Knight Frank executive managing director Jeff Read and managing director Greg Osborne. Both are located in that firm's Newport Beach office.

Arlon's lease agreement culminated a two-year search that included prospective locations in and outside of Orange County. Placentia city officials, who worked with the tenant and Colliers to help identify potential sites that would meet the company's needs as well as those of its employees, lauded the firm's decision to relocate their city and noted the economic benefits it would bring to their municipality.

“We are very pleased to have one of Orange County's top manufacturing firms coming in to the city,” says Placentia Mayor Scott Nelson. “With its 200 jobs, its expansion plans and the overall economic benefit it will bring with it, we see only positive benefits associated with Arlon's move to our city. We are doing all we can to welcome and work with them during their relocation and expansion.”

The firm will be investing in numerous operational upgrades at the new location, including a $7-million state-of-the-art adhesive-coating line, new technical software, energy-efficient lighting, air-and-water systems and upgraded environmental controls for its compounding and coating operations. As currently configured, the building, which sits on just over 11 acres, has direct rail access, cross-dock loading capability, some 21 dock-high loading doors, ground-level truck access, a large fenced and secured parking area, heavy power capacity and 12,500 square feet of upgraded office space. It also is accessible to the 57 and 91 freeways.

As GlobeSt.com reported in July, IndCor Properties has awarded the management of a 9-million-square-foot Southern California industrial portfolio in Orange County, San Diego and the Inland Empire to Cushman & Wakefield. The assignment adds to C&W's existing management contract involving 3.5 million square feet of IndCor's industrial properties in five Chicago submarkets, including O'Hare and I-55 and I-80 corridors.