Ricoh Electronics Inc. has renewed its lease for one of the larger industrial buildings in Orange County.
Ricoh, a maker of copiers, fax machines and other electronics, recently inked a new deal to remain at 1123 Warner Ave., an industrial building in Tustin just off the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway and a few blocks from the edge of the city’s former Marine base.
The 500,625-square-foot building is owned by Fresno-based Bedrosians Tile & Stone, which bought the building for $27 million in 2003.
Ricoh has been in the building since that sale and initially leased about half the property. In 2006 it expanded to take up the entire 1123 Warner building, which was part of the city’s former Steelcase Inc. campus. Its prior lease was scheduled to end in mid-2013, according to CoStar Group Inc. data.
The new lease is for an additional three years, according to Jeff Chiate, executive director for the Irvine office of Cushman & Wakefield Inc. who brokered the deal.
Terms weren’t disclosed. On a square-footage basis, the deal represents the largest reported industrial lease in Orange County since early last year, when cabinetmaker Ron Simon’s RSI Home Products Inc. renewed its lease for a 675,000-square-foot manufacturing building in Anaheim, according to brokerage data.
Ricoh, a unit of Japan-based Ricoh Co., is estimated to lease about 1.4 million square feet of industrial space in OC, with most of that space located along the 55 Freeway. The company has leased as many as eight industrial buildings in Irvine, Santa Ana and Tustin in recent years.
The company makes digital cameras, copiers, fax machines, scanners, printers and all-in-one devices for offices. It is the 18th-largest foreign-owned company in OC with about 550 workers.
Landlord Bedrosians Tile & Stone is a major presence for commercial real estate in and around OC.
Bedrosian, owned by tile mogul Larry Bedrosian, has been estimated to own or lease close to 3 million square feet of industrial space, much of it here in OC. The company recently inked another lease in Corona for about 410,000 square feet, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s Chiate, who also worked on that deal.
The Corona building, at 1235 Quarry St., is near the intersection of the Riverside (91) and Corona (15) freeways.
Mobile Park Buys
Irvine-based Caritas Corp., an affordable housing provider and one of OC’s large nonprofits, has added a trio of mobile home parks in California to its portfolio.
Caritas paid $39 million for the three parks—Casa Grande Mobile Home Park in Vacaville, Castle City Mobile Home Park in Newcastle and Brierwood Estates in Lancaster.
The transaction was financed with the use of tax-exempt revenue bonds, according to the company. Caritas now owns and operates 17 mobile home parks.
Newcastle Mobile Home Park is an all-seniors community with 200 units, while Casa Grande Mobile Home Park and Brierwood Estates are family communities, consisting of 153 and 308 mobile home spaces, respectively.
At least 20% of the homes in each park are occupied by residents who qualify as very-low income, according to Caritas, which earned more than $14 million in revenue last year.
The company, established in 1996, ranks as OC’s 21st-largest nonprofit, based on revenue.
Pomona Lease Up
Irvine-based LBA Realty has leased up a big industrial property it owns in the San Gabriel Valley.
New Jersey-based Gilbert USA, a provider of supply chain services for the retail sector, recently inked a nearly 344,000-square-foot deal for a property LBA owns at 2849 Ficus St. in Pomona.
The building will be Gilbert’s first West Coast location.
Gilbert USA is immediately occupying a 205,185-square-foot portion of the distribution warehouse, located near the intersection of the Pomona (60) and Chino Valley (71) freeways.
The company will take over the remainder of the building by the end of the year, said Louis Tomaselli, managing partner of Irvine brokerage 360 Commercial Partners, who represented the Gilbert USA in the deal.
Cushman & Wakefield represented LBA Realty in the transaction. The building previously was occupied by Verizon, which sold the building to the real estate investor a few years ago under a sales-leaseback transaction, according to regulatory filings.
