Jack’s Surf & Sport LLC, owner of Jack’s Surfboards shops, is staying in Huntington Beach after signing a lease that more than doubles the size of its headquarters.
The five-year lease, with an option to renew for another five years, ends a nearly nine-month search for new space.
The deal takes Jack’s corporate offices and warehouse from about 20,000 square feet to more than 52,000 square feet.
The new site also offers the possibility for a store that could serve as Jack’s first outlet, selling out-of-season and other discounted merchandise.
Jack’s operates stores in Huntington Beach, Irvine, Corona del Mar, Dana Point and Hermosa Beach. The stores sell clothes, shoes and accessories, much of it from local companies including Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc. and Volcom Inc. in Costa Mesa, among others.
The new lease allows Jack’s to consolidate operations from a 7,000-square-foot industrial building it had been leasing on Reynolds Circle in Huntington Beach and a 13,392-square-foot industrial building it owns on the same street. The company plans to keep the building it owns and seek tenants.
Outgrew Space
Jack’s had grown out of its office and warehouse space, making the decision to seek a bigger building an easy one when the lease on Reynolds Circle expired, said co-owner Jamal Abdelmuti.
“We needed more of everything,” Abdelmuti said.
With the larger space, Jack’s plans to dedicate 7,000 square feet to offices and another 5,000 square feet to its online department. The rest of the space will be used as a warehouse, Abdelmuti said.
Jack’s looked at facilities outside Huntington Beach, including a building in Fountain Valley.
The hang-up for the company was finding a building in the 40,000-square-foot range.
“This one, to be truthful, is a little big for us, but with the market being the way it is, it was affordable,” Abdelmuti said.
Mike Barreiro and Gavin Denniston of Daum Commercial Real Estate Services represented Jack’s in its new lease. Wayne Lambert and Chuck Wilson of Colliers International represented landlord AMB Property Corp. of San Francisco.
Unlike Jack’s current headquarters, the new building has the zoning and street traffic that makes adding a store possible.
“The other places we’ve been in are industrial and this is just off of Gothard, so there’s a little more traffic,” Abdelmuti said.
Good Timing
The addition of discount retail space could come at a good time as Jack’s and other retailers recover from the downturn.
Jack’s doesn’t disclose sales figures. Abdelmuti said 2010 sales were up 10% to 12% from the previous year in a rebound from the lows of the downturn.
A store at the new headquarters still is “not a done deal” Abdelmuti said.
If Jack’s decides to go through with the store, the company would need to go through the regular city permitting process.
Jack’s is waiting until it settles into the new space before moving forward on plans for a store.
“We have plans, but we’re just waiting,” Abdelmuti said. “We have enough parking. We just want to make sure we have enough space first to do our main work.”
Jack’s Lease
16350 Gothard St.<br >Huntington Beach<br >Space: 52,351 square feet<br >Terms: five years; $2.1 million<br >Notable: more than doubling headquarters
