Los Angeles-based real estate developer Lowe Enterprises Inc. has paid nearly $20 million for an aging battery factory in Fullerton and plans to redevelop the site as small buildings for sale or lease.
The site is about five miles north of Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Plans to redevelop the area around the ball park drove the buy, according to Michael W. McNerney, senior vice president of Lowe’s real estate group in Irvine.
Lowe plans to market the buildings to businesses displaced by plans to build high-rise condominiums, apartments and shops around the stadium. Anaheim is redeveloping the area known as the Platinum Triangle with Miami-based Lennar Corp. and others pursuing projects there.
Lennar has paid top dollar for industrial buildings around the stadium, prompting the relocation of several small businesses.
“We are targeting the small user who wants to remain in Orange County,” McNerney said. “There have been a number of industrial small- to medium-size owners who have been displaced in Anaheim.”
Lowe acquired the building from Johnson Controls Inc., a Milwaukee-based auto parts and battery maker. The company, which employs 115 workers in Fullerton, said it plans to move its auto battery production to Arizona.
The company doesn’t have a date yet for the closure, according to Johnson spokeswoman Monica Levy.
Lowe plans to lease the 180,000-square-foot building back to Johnson, McNerney said.
Within the next 12 months, Johnson is set to raze the building and clean up the site after years of making lead acid-batteries, he said.
Plans call for several buildings ranging from 5,000 to 50,000 square feet on the 15-acre site, according to McNerney. The buildings could total 260,000 square feet in all, he said.
Voit Commercial Brokerage LP has been hired to help Lowe market the project. Lowe still must get city approvals from Fullerton for its plans.
More than a dozen bids were submitted for the building on East Kimberly Avenue, an industrial section of Fullerton near Orangethorpe Avenue.
The street takes it name for Dallas-based Kimberly-Clark Corp., which has a mill on the street employing about 400 people.
The battery plant first was operated by Globe-Union Inc., which Johnson acquired in 1978.
Johnson is in talks with officials in Yuma about building a plant there, according to Levy.
“It’s very expensive to do business in California,” Levy said.
Johnson plans to build a $9 million battery factory in Yuma employing 120 people, according to Kevin Tunell, a spokesman for the Yuma County Board of Supervisors.
Construction is expected to begin late next month and finish next fall, Tunell said.
Johnson is the largest auto battery maker in North America. The company has felt fallout from slower sales at some automakers.
Johnson provides batteries to General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., DaimlerChrysler AG, Honda Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. AutoZone Inc., The Pep Boys,Manny, Moe & Jack Inc., Costco Wholesale Corp., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other retailers also sell Johnson batteries.
