Upscale candle and fragrance maker Voluspa is moving its headquarters and operations from Lake Forest to Irvine after signing a lease for a high-profile industrial building near John Wayne Airport.
The fast-growing company, which was also operated under the Flame & Wax Inc. name, inked a lease to take over 2900 McCabe Way. The 84,816-square-foot building in Irvine is just off the east side of San Diego (I-405) Freeway and Jamboree Road.
The move nearly triples Voluspa’s space.
The building, owned by Beverly Hills-based Crown Associates Realty, was previously used by Costa Mesa-based surfwear maker Hurley International LLC as a distribution center.
The five-year deal is valued at just under $3 million, according to brokers with the Irvine office of Voit Real Estate Services Inc., which represented Crown.
That works out to monthly rents of about 58 cents per square foot.
Voluspa is expected to move to its new location by October.
Voluspa’s fragrance-laden candles have gotten plenty of exposure in style and entertainment magazines, and have been linked to a number of celebrities.
Celebrities who’ve been sighted using the company’s products include Megan Fox, Victoria Beckham and Halle Berry, among dozens of others, according to Voluspa’s website.
The company, named for the “Scandinavian goddess of wisdom,” had been operating out of approximately 27,500 square feet of space in Lake Forest since 2006.
All the company’s candles are made on site, and increasingly busy operations at Voluspa’s warehouse are said to have cramped operations. The company’s yard area often fills to capacity with materials, said Guy Laferrara, chief executive and partner with Lee & Associates-Irvine, which represented Voluspa in the lease.
The new location, which includes about 9,000 square feet for offices and some lab space, should give the company room to expand operations, Laferrara said.
The company employed about 50 workers as of early last year.
Voluspa has been averaging sales growth of roughly 20% the past few years. Its sales in 2009 were estimated at about $10 million.
The company sells candles that run from $15 to $25. They’re sold at boutique retailers such as Fred Segal of Los Angeles, and a roster of larger chains that includes New York-based Bloomingdales Inc. and Saks Fifth Avenue, and Anthropologie, a unit of Urban Outfit-ters Inc. in Philadelphia.
House Blend
The candles use a coconut wax blend and are designed not to smoke when burning. They can cost twice as much as competitors’ products, but they’ll burn twice as long, the company says.
Voluspa’s founders, Troy and Traci Arntsen, created their first scented candle in their Costa Mesa kitchen in 1999.
He is the company’s chief executive.
She serves as creative director and has come up with more than 200 scents for Voluspa.
Along with candles, the company’s been expanding the past few years into a line of home fragrances.
The company outbid a number of other potential tenants in order to grab the Irvine space, according to Kevin Turner, a senior vice president with Voit who worked on the deal with colleague Michael Hartel.
Increased Demand
Hurley, a unit of Nike Inc., left the building earlier this year, consolidating its warehouse operations in an Inland Empire building already leased by Nike.
After Hurley left, the building was marketed for about 45 days and received six proposals, according to Turner.
That’s a reflection of the increased demand of late for buildings in the 100,000-square-foot range, especially in the airport area, Turner said.
Crown Associates has owned the McCabe property since the early 1990s. At the peak of the last housing boom, the site was eyed as a possible residential development by Los Angeles-based KB Home.
Tower Tale
KB Home filed plans with the city of Irvine to develop 2900 McCabe, a 314-home project that would have included a 16-story tower.
Those plans were quickly shelved as the housing market soured, and by 2007 KB Home had fallen out of escrow to buy the 4-acre site.
Crown Associates earlier this year was marketing the existing industrial building for sale, at a price of about $14.8 million, or $175 per square foot, according to data from CoStar Group Inc.
The building’s no longer up for sale, according to Turner.
