Okeh Caterers Inc. sold its industrial property to Lennar Corp. earlier this year, helping the homebuilder push its ambitious plans in Anaheim’s Platinum Triangle.
Now the catering company has found a new home just a few miles away. Okeh plans to move to a bigger redeveloped industrial property just off the Riverside (91) Freeway in Anaheim.
The site previously housed the operations of industrial motor maker Electra-Gear.
Electra-Gear, a unit of Regal-Beloit Corp., of Beloit, Wis., closed operations at its 1110 N. Anaheim Blvd. site about a year and a half ago, citing the high cost of doing business in California. It had been there for six decades.
Okeh has signed a lease for the N. Anaheim site. It has the option to buy, said Brian Malliet, managing partner for Costa Mesa-based BKM Development Co., which bought the plant from Regal-Beloit and is upgrading the site.
Okeh is expected to move in by the end of June.
Many businesses that used to call the industrial area near Angel Stadium of Anaheim home are gradually finding new headquarters in OC. They’ve been displaced by the massive residential and commercial development that is expected to bring thousands of condominiums, townhomes and apartments to the Platinum Triangle.
Not all companies leaving the Platinum Triangle are staying local.
Some are looking outside OC to relocate, out of cost concerns. Others are looking to keep their headquarters local, while moving manufacturing and distribution operations to areas such as Corona, brokers said.
That wasn’t an option for Okeh. The caterer has been based locally for more than 30 years, said Tom Lamb, the company’s president.
“We needed to stay here, within our sphere of influence,” Lamb said.
The company has more than 100 trucks, employs about 30 full-time workers, and serves large customers primarily in the area around Anaheim, he said.
BKM, known for redeveloping industrial sites, is demolishing a 48,000-square-foot building at the old Electra-Gear site. It’s upgrading three other existing buildings, which will have warehouse, refrigeration and office space.
The revamped site will total about 40,000 square feet, said Brian Corrigan, an industrial broker in the Anaheim office of Voit Commercial Brokerage LP, who worked on the deal.
Okeh and other companies that sold their industrial plants to Platinum Triangle developers, including Lennar, Beazer Homes USA Inc. and D.R. Horton Inc., are using proceeds from the sale to grow, Corrigan said
Okeh was one of several companies,including electric cord maker Lamcor Inc. and food maker Don Miguel Mexican Foods Inc.,that had to move following Lennar’s $55 million buy of 13.5 acres in the area.
Lennar is set to use that land for its A-Town 2 project, along State College Boulevard and E. Orangewood Avenue.
The Aliso Viejo-based office of Lennar officially broke ground on its residential and commercial development in Anaheim last week. The construction marks the end of an era for dozens of office and industrial businesses that used to operate in the area.
Demolition of existing buildings in the main part of Lennar’s development, along Katella Avenue, took place earlier this year. Razing for its A-Town 2 project is expected by the end of the year.
Other Platinum Triangle companies finding new digs include Traffic Control Service Inc., which builds signs for freeway and road construction companies.
Traffic Control is moving from four Anaheim-based buildings, two of which it owned, to a renovated warehouse in Fullerton that it recently bought for $6.1 million.
