One of South Korea’s largest beauty and cosmetics companies is moving its U.S. distribution center to Orange County.
Adding to the man-bites-dog element of the Inland Empire-to-OC move, the new industrial site is more than twice the size of its prior location.
Amorepacific U.S. signed a lease last month for 111,679 square feet at 3300 E. Birch St. in Brea, a newly built facility just over a mile east of the Orange (57) Freeway.
The deal is among the larger industrial leases in Orange County for the past three months, according to brokerage data.
The beauty giant, whose U.S. headquarters are in New York, was previously at an estimated 46,000-square-foot space in Corona for the past four years.
Before that, it had a smaller facility in La Mirada.
Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services Principal Christopher Destino, who represented the tenant in the lease, said staying in the Inland Empire would have likely been less expensive for the manufacturer, but Orange County proved to be a more attractive market.
“They felt like the employment pool was strong [and] getting back into OC provided them more options and flexibility,” he said. “This [move] is part of a larger expansion.”
Parent company Amorepacific Group is listed on the Korean Exchange (KRX: 002790) and has an estimated market cap of $6 billion.
The 74-year-old conglomerate has more than 20 cosmetics, personal care and health brands in its portfolio.
Products include popular line Laneige, which starts around $25. Its North American ambassador is pro snowboarder and Olympic gold medalist Chloe Kim.
Other products include Parisian fragrance brand Goutal Paris, formerly Annick Goutal, and the influencer-favorite skincare line Sulwhasoo.
Its sales are reported to be in excess of $5 billion. It also has offices in France, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan.
The company has been capitalizing on the Korean beauty trend and pushing for international growth—launching its products stateside at notable retailers such as Sephora, Nordstrom and Ulta Beauty—and in a company presentation last month Chairman Suh Kyung-bae said it plans to go above the K-beauty craze with “world-class products with an unmatched edge.”
New Development
Newmark Knight Frank Executive Managing Directors Jeff Read, Scott Read and Managing Director Greg Osborne represented the Brea property’s owner, Newport Beach-based Western Realco, in the lease.
The developer—Orange County’s most active industrial developer the past few years—purchased the 9.8-acre site in 2015 in a venture with Boston-based AEW Capital Management LP for an undisclosed sum. CoStar Group Inc. records pegged the estimated value of the sale at $14.2 million.
Western Realco razed the existing 68,807-square-foot building at the site, which had been vacant since 2014, and completed its development in December 2017.
The 218,648-square-foot state-of-the-art facility has a two-story corporate office area, 32-foot minimum ceiling clearance, two ground level loading doors and 21 dock-high loading doors, as well as a secured yard and fencing.
“It’s a good market, a great submarket and very vibrant [area] with a low vacancy rate,” said Western Realco Principal Vance Mape.
Amorepacific joins electric household appliance manufacturer Whynter LLC at the now fully leased property.
Mape said his company—profiled in the Jan. 19 edition of the Business Journal—has developed 14 buildings within Orange County over the last several years.
With its Amorepacific deal filling up the Birch Street property, just about all of the buildings have either been fully leased or sold, he said.
Its Beckman Business Center development in Fullerton, the largest new industrial project in the county in four years, is close to selling out after San Francisco-based Prologis Inc. paid about $124 million for the three largest buildings at the development.
“The key is being able to find the product,” Mape said. “These are all infill—all these projects we’ve done have had existing buildings on them that were outdated so we move in and take down the older buildings. The market’s there it’s just being able to find those properties where you can do that.”
