The Irvine Spectrum’s industrial market is about to get a little cooler, and a creative-office redevelopment isn’t the cause this time around.
Boise, Idaho-based grocery chain Albertsons Cos. is planning to build “a new freezer warehouse facility” for the majority of the nearly 200,000-square-foot expansion to its Irvine distribution center at 9300 Toledo Way, according to city filings.
I first reported on a planned expansion to the Spectrum-area distribution center—the largest industrial facility or facility expansion that would be built in the city in over a decade—in the Sept. 21 issue of the Business Journal.
Specifics of the grocer’s plans weren’t disclosed at the time, and the company’s representatives couldn’t be reached for comment for that story. Since then the city provided additional documentation regarding the expansion showing that the project is tentatively scheduled to begin by mid-November and that completion is planned for next September.
Nampa, Idaho-based general contractor Hansen-Rice Inc. is heading up construction of the project on about 14.6 acres, according to city records.
The freezer warehouse facility will support temperatures of minus 15 degrees to 34 degrees. Some minor changes to existing facilities at the distribution center are also planned, the filings indicate.
The Albertsons property is currently 1 million square feet, according to brokerage data. It’s one of the four largest industrial facilities in the county and the largest industrial property in South Orange County, according to market tracker CoStar.
The Irvine facility is on land near the southeastern edge of the former El Toro Marine base and future campus of Irvine-based chipmaker Broadcom Corp.
The industrial property has an assessed value of $84.6 million, according to CoStar records.
The expansion and reinvestment in the Irvine facility, and a decision to keep a local office in Fullerton that has served as the company’s Southern California division headquarters, comes as Albertsons tries to shed a pair of big distribution facilities it owns in L.A. County.
The Santa Fe Springs and El Monte facilities total nearly 2 million square feet. They’re being marketed for sale by the Irvine office of JLL and could fetch more than $250 million, according to a recent report by our sister publication, the Los Angeles Business Journal.
Albertsons runs 31 grocery stores in Orange County under the Albertsons name. Its Irvine facility and a similarly sized distribution center in Brea serve much of its Southern California operations.
Supplement Surge
A Tustin-based manufacturer of health and beauty supplements is planning to expand its operations by moving into a new headquarters in Irvine.
Nutrawise Corp., which also operates under the name Youtheory, recently signed a lease to occupy all of 9600 Toledo Way, a 92,000-square-foot industrial facility in the Irvine Spectrum.
It will relocate later this year to the facility, which has triple the amount of manufacturing space as its current Tustin location on Bell Avenue.
Vegas Bet
Irvine-based Bascom Group LLC has added a high-end rental complex near Las Vegas to its apartment portfolio.
The company, which historically has looked to buy class B rental properties, partnered with L.A.-based Oaktree Capital Management LP to buy Vantage, a 110-unit complex in Henderson, Nev., that was once slated for a luxury condo project.
The deal came to nearly $39 million, or roughly $347,000 per unit—four times the going rate for an apartment in that market.
