Ultra Wheel Co., a seller of fancy chrome-plated auto rims, has moved from Buena Park to smaller digs in Fullerton after shifting production to China last year.
The company recently sold its 40-year-old Buena Park headquarters for $14.5 million. Last summer, Ultra Wheel laid off 168 workers at the 255,200-square-foot plant on 6300 Valley View Road.
Now Ultra Wheel has leased a 68,000-square-foot building at 570 Gilbert St. at the Fullerton Crossroads industrial complex.
Ultra Wheel’s building is one of nine warehouse and distribution facilities at the 1.2 million-square-foot industrial center. Cushman & Wakefield Inc. represented Ultra Wheel and Fullerton Crossroad landlord RREEF Funds LLC of San Francisco.
Ultra Wheel’s owner and racecar driver James “Jimmy” Smith is one of the founders of Nascar truck racing and owner of the Ultra Motorsports truck team in Mooresville, N.C.
Smith started Ultra Wheel in 1985 in Garden Grove and moved to Buena Park 10 years later.
Trade industry publication Modern Casting counts Ultra Wheel’s annual sales at about $50 million. Ultra Wheel couldn’t be reached for comment.
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Ultra Wheel’s former Buena Park site: set for renovation, division for smaller tenants |
As for Ultra Wheel’s former Buena Park facility, buyer Overton Moore Properties of Gardena plans to renovate and divide it to lease to smaller tenants. The site has some room for additional building, according to Jeff Chiate, a Cushman broker.
“There is a strong demand, especially by smaller, more entrepreneurial users, for new industrial product in Orange County,” Chiate said.
Overton Moore developed the 1.3 million-square-foot CommerceCentre@Buena Park, an industrial park that’s home to some of the county’s largest warehouses. The site is a former distribution center for Albertson’s Inc.
“They did a really good job on the Albertson’s facility,” said May Hui, Buena Park’s economic development director.
Ultra Wheel’s move is the latest in a series of losses for Buena Park.
Last year, Stamford, Conn-based MeadWestvaco Corp. closed a plant next to Ultra Wheel’s former site. And Kraft Foods Inc. is in the process of closing its massive Nabisco plant in Buena Park.
Hui said the city is hoping Overton also will buy the vacant MeadWestvaco building. Bids still are coming in for the building, she said.
Overton is believed to be a bidder, she said. The company couldn’t be reached for comment.
MeadWestvaco closed its package-making plant as part of a $50 million cost-cutting bid. The company, which made cardboard cartons for soda and other products in Buena Park, laid off 135 workers last year.
As for the Kraft plant, the city is working on rezoning. Irvine-based Centra Realty Corp. is in the process of buying the site from Kraft. The developer plans to replace the plant with a retail “power center” anchored by big retailers.
