Schwinn/GT Corp. has signed a $6 million, five-year lease to occupy a 323,660-square-foot facility in Fontana and will move its operations there from Santa Ana in June.
Investors have paid $31 million for the 360,000-square-foot Santa Ana building that GT is vacating, with plans to turn the site into a data center. New York’s Rockefeller Group Development Corp. and Del Mar-based Valencia Commercial Properties Inc. bought the building at 2001 E. Dyer Road earlier this year and said they plan to spend up to $15 million fixing it up.
The former GT Bicycles Inc.,a maker of BMX, mountain, cruiser and road bikes and accessories,moved into the Santa Ana facility in May 1997. GT was acquired by Questor Partners Fund, owner of Schwinn Holdings Corp., in October 1998.
The firm is leasing the largest of the three buildings making up the Jasmine Distribution Center, said Rob Fuelling, marketing director for Investment Development Services Inc. in Los Angeles. Investment Development manages the property for owner Adaya Asset Corp. in Los Angeles.
The Jasmine Center will serve as Schwinn/GT’s distribution and warehouse base in Southern California.
The bike maker will use the new facility exclusively to store and distribute bicycle parts, Fuelling said. It was not immediately known how many employees would work there, but in April, Schwinn/GT said the relocation to the Inland Empire will entail up to 100 layoffs.
“This will be a better location for (Schwinn), with better access to the entire Southern California market,” said Fuelling, whose company also oversaw construction of the Jasmine facility. “They’re going to be very close to the (Interstate) 15 and 10 freeways.”
The Schwinn/GT signing means there is only one vacant building left at the Jasmine Center: a 140,000-square-foot structure that is close to being leased, according to Fuelling. New Jersey-based Genlyte Group Inc. took 118,000 square feet in another 184,000-square-foot building last year, Fuelling said. n
Ascenzi is a staff writer at the Business Press, Ontario. Roger Bloom contributed to this report.
