Bisco Industries, a maker of electronic components, fasteners and other hardware products, has paid $31 million to buy the Anaheim distribution center that’s been its home since 2020.
The seller of the property at 5037 and 5065 E. Hunter Ave. is a trust controlled by the chairman and CEO of Eaco Corp. (OTC: EACO), Glen Ceiley.
Ceiley’s trust plans to use a large portion of the proceeds “for helping endangered species—the rhino being the most at risk,” the Eaco head told the Business Journal.
Bisco is the largest unit of Anaheim’s Eaco, which counted a $165 million valuation as of last week.
The deal works out to a price of about $367 per square foot for the roughly 85,000-square-foot property, according to records from real estate market tracker CoStar Group Inc.
It also marks the third-largest industrial sale in Anaheim this year, according to CoStar records.
Ceiley paid $12.2 million for the property, located on 4.6 acres at the corner of Orangethorpe Avenue and Kellogg Drive, near the Imperial (90) Highway and Riverside (91) Freeway, in 2017.
Bisco was paying monthly rents of a little more than $0.85 per square foot prior to the sale, according to regulatory filings.
The company said it “agreed to the property purchase primarily to utilize its cash position and to reduce its corporate overhead expenses.”
Eaco had about $8.5 million in cash on hand as of Aug. 31, according to the company’s latest quarterly report.
The Anaheim property is “expected to continue to house the company’s corporate headquarters and Anaheim distribution center for the foreseeable future,” officials said.
Half-Century of History
Bisco supplies parts used in manufacturing for products in the aerospace, computer, industrial equipment, military and marine industries, among others.
The company is the largest of three subsidiaries of Eaco, which acquired Bisco in 2010.
Like Eaco, Bisco is led by Ceiley, who originally founded the company in 1973 in Chicago.
Four years later, Bisco moved from its founding city to San Jose. In 1987, the company relocated to Anaheim. Bisco at the time counted 14 locations and 100 employees.
As of 2020, Bisco comprised of 51 locations with almost 500 employees, according to its website.
Parent Company
The other subsidiaries of Eaco, aside from Bisco, are National-Precision and Fast-Cor.
National-Precision sells electronic hardware and commercial fasteners to manufacturers in the aerospace and industrial equipment sectors.
Fast-Cor also offers fasteners, but unlike National-Precision and Bisco, it only sells to distributors.
About two weeks after Eaco sold 5037 and 5065 E. Hunter Ave. to Bisco, the company reported its financial results for the year ended Aug. 31.
Net sales totaled $319 million, up 9.2% from the year prior. The company over the past two years has increased its revenue by 34%.
Earnings per share for Eaco declined 0.7% to $4.34.
Industrial Activity
The sale of Eaco’s distribution center comes as activity picks up for industrial real estate in North Orange County.
Newport Beach-based real estate investment firm Buchanan Street Partners last month paid $71 million for a 301,328-square-foot campus in Buena Park. The deal for the five-building complex at 7050-7150 Village Drive worked out to about $236 per square foot, according to property records.
Organic grocer Sprouts Farmers Market Inc. (Nasdaq: SFM) last month unveiled its 337,000-square-foot distribution center at 1829 E. Orangethorpe Ave. in Fullerton, nearly after a year it signed its lease for the newly built facility.
