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TEJON RANCH, CA-Tejon Ranch Co. and Rockefeller GroupDevelopment Corp. have started construction on the two companies'606,000-sf previously announced joint venture warehouse at the1,450-acre Tejon Industrial Complex. The joint venture partnershipis also securing a Foreign Trade Zone at the site.<p.The newwarehouse, designed to meet the needs of West Coast-based logisticsoperators, will occupy a site adjacent to IKEA's westernregional distribution facility, which is part of approximately 2.5million sf of distribution space already operating at the complex.According to Tom McCormick, Rockefeller Group's SVP ofdevelopment, the developers' studies of imported goods andcommodities moving into US markets through the ports of Los Angelesand Long Beach indicate the need for such facilities as the new606,000-sf project.

Robert Stine, president and CEO of Tejon Ranch Co., says thatthe joint venture aims to combine Tejon's strategically placedindustrial land and the Rockefeller Group's track record indeveloping Foreign Trade Zones. The location of the complex at thejunction of Interstate 5 and Highway 99 about 60 miles north of LosAngeles, combined with an FTZ designation, is expected to provideaccess to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as well as thePort of Oakland.