AST Sportswear Inc., an Anaheim-based maker of T-shirts and other sportswear, plans to move its headquarters to Brea after buying the headquarters of limousine maker Krystal Enterprises.
The company recently closed on the purchase of 2701 Imperial Highway, a 113,851-square-foot industrial building that Krystal Enterprises had occupied for the past 12 years.
The limo maker, which operates under the Krystal Infinity LLC name, filed for bankruptcy last summer and has been selling off its assets while winding down operations.
The two-story Brea building, built in 1996, sold for $12.75 million, according to court documents. That works out to a price of about $112 per square foot for the building, which counts more than 15,000 square feet of office space.
The property is located on a 7.6-acre site at the intersection of Imperial Highway and Kraemer Boulevard, across the street from the Imperial Center East shopping center.
The sale is the largest owner-user sale transaction in North Orange County for 2012, both by square feet and by total consideration, according to brokers with CBRE Group Inc. that worked on the deal.
“There were multiple offers, resulting in the largest deal of its kind this year in North Orange County,” said Steve Young a broker with the Newport Beach office of CBRE who, along with colleague Brian Cole, represented Krystal Enterprises in the sale.
Doug Himes, a broker with the Orange office of Lee & Associates, represented the buyer in the sale.
The purchase marks a large step up in local space for AST, which makes and distributes a variety of shirts, fleece and other activewear products under the Bayside trade name, among other branded and private-label merchandise.
More Space
The company has been operating out of a nearly 38,000-square-foot property along Miraloma Avenue in Anaheim, about five miles from the Brea property. The company had outgrown that location, which it bought in 2002, according to brokers working on the sale.
AST—which purchased the Brea building under an affiliated company called Master Real Estate Holdings Inc.—is expected to make the move to the new location in early 2013.
The company employed a little more than 100 local employees as of mid-2012, according to Business Journal estimates. The company ranked as Orange County’s 22nd largest apparel maker by local employee count in 2012.
The sale of the Brea property is the largest asset being sold by Krystal Enterprises, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August. It’s the second time the company and its predecessor businesses, which also operated under the Krystal Koach name, filed for bankruptcy since 2010.
Krystal Enterprises has been selling off most of its assets to pay off debtors following the latest bankruptcy; Comerica Inc. was expected to be paid more than $6 million from proceeds from the sale of the Brea property, while East West Bank was scheduled to be paid more than $4 million, according to court documents.
The company, which got its start more than 30 years ago, had grown to be one of the country’s largest makers of limousines and had long used the Imperial Highway location for the production and sale of its vehicles. It sold its products to limousine operators, dealerships, corporations, casinos and individuals.
Krystal Enterprises made stretch Ford and Lincoln limousines, sport utility vehicle limousines, shuttles, buses and hearses.
The company cited a cash crunch as a primary reason for the latest bankruptcy filing. Among other issues, Krystal had expected a nearly $5 million investment by Chinese battery magnate Winston Chung, a co-owner of the company since 2011.
That money was never provided, after Chung reportedly had difficulty getting the money out of China.
