Talega Business Park Set for First Occupant
Jerry Carpino may be the poster child of the Talega masterplanned community.
Carpino moved his residence from the San Gabriel area to Talega on Christmas Eve of last year and in November his company, Pacific Packaging Machinery Inc., will move from Covina to become the first business to open its doors in the Talega Business Park.
“I don’t know if it was a coincidence or fate,” Carpino said, “but we were looking for a new place to live and a site to build our new building on and everything sort of fell into place.”
After locating a home, Carpino began the search for a new business site.
“I don’t know if we got the cart before the horse,” Carpino said, “but it’s worked out well.”
Carpino acquired 1.88 acres in the spring from Talega Associates LLC for an undisclosed amount and now construction of the 30,000-square-foot corporate headquarters and manufacturing plant for Pacific Packaging is nearing completion.
The 40-year-old family-run business designs and manufacturers machinery for high-speed “jar-filling.”
Pacific Packaging’s machinery fills jars,anything from peanut butter to mayonnaise to suntan lotion,with single-minded efficiency, up to 500 jars per minute.
The move to Talega will allow the thriving company to expand its operations. Pacific Packaging will increase its size from 20,000 square feet and its staff from 20 to 35.
The Pacific Packaging site is part of the first phase of the $200 million, 82-acre business park off Avenida Pico in inland San Clemente.
The developer, Talega Associates, is a partnership of Irvine-based Standard Pacific Corp., San Francisco-based Catellus Residential Group and Greenwich, Conn.-based Starwood Capital Group LLC. Lake Forest-based Makena Properties serves as the development consultant. Lee & Associates is marketing the park.
Activity picked up last December when Talega Associates LLC sold parcels to Santa Ana-based Burke Real Estate Group and to Makena-Talega LLC.
Burke purchased 15 acres and has plans for 15 buildings totaling more than 200,000 square feet.
“They’re looking at high-end office and light industrial users,” said Jay Mast of Lee & Associates’ Irvine Spectrum office.
Makena Properties made a smaller purchase, snatching up 5.37 acres from Talega Associates for $2.3 million. But the firm has experienced a strong response to the land.
“We bought the lot in December and then subdivided it into three lots,” said Brad Kelly, vice president of development for Makena Properties.
The developer sold the first two plots to Talega Medical Plaza and Portland, Ore.-based Kindercare Learning Center. Both sites are under construction. The medical plaza will be 25,000 square feet and Kindercare will occupy 10,000 square feet upon completion. Both buildings will be ready for occupancy during the first quarter.
Makena is developing the third plot on a speculative basis. Four single-story office buildings, totaling 25,000 square feet, are under construction with completion set for January.
“We’re targeting the properties for sale or lease,” Kelly said. “And we’re looking at single-tenant professionals,doctors, lawyers, accountants,to fill the space.”
Earlier this summer, Nichols Institute Diagnostics, a unit of Teterboro, N.J-based Quest Diagnostics Inc., announced it was moving from its base in San Juan Capistrano to an 85,000-square-foot building within the business park. About 200 workers are expected to make the move to the new site.
According to Pat Hayes, general manager of Talega Associates, Phase I of the business park is nearly sold out, and the build-out of both phases is expected in five to seven years.
Though Phase I has met the group’s expectations, the strategy will shift in marketing Phase II.
“For phase I, we sold primarily to developers,Makena, Tayco Properties and Burke,but for Phase II, we’re looking more to marketing directly to end-users,” said Hayes. n
