Home Shopping Signs Lease for Warehouse

Newport Beach-based developer Western Realco had barely broken ground for one of the largest warehouse buildings in California last week when television’s Home Shopping Network signed a 10-year lease valued at more than $30 million for the entire 817,750-square-foot warehouse and distribution center in Fontana.

The Western Realco development and the $5.4-million purchase of 48 acres of industrial land in nearby Colton last week by Chattanooga, Tenn.-based trucking firm U.S. Xpress Enterprises Inc. are the latest in a long-running series of transactions that underscore the tremendous demand for huge industrial facilities in Southern California, the largest of which are being built in the Inland Empire.

Western Realco’s development, at Santa Ana Avenue and Commerce Way, is called Sierra Gateway Commerce Center, said Gary Edwards, a Western vice president. Western is developing the project at a cost of $24 million on behalf of Des Moines-based owner Principal Capital Management.

Florida-based Home Shopping Network is leasing the warehouse from Principal, said broker Walt Chenowith of CB Richard Ellis, who represented Principal as part of a team that included Dan de la Paz, Marc Burns and Frank Geraci. Home Shopping was represented by Chuck Belden and David Hasbrouck of Cushman & Wakefield.

Home Shopping Network is slated to occupy the warehouse in late summer. The warehouse is being built by Oltmans Construction Co. of Whittier and was designed by Tustin-based architectural firm Bastien & Associates.

In the Colton land sale, U.S. Xpress is buying a project already under construction at 2200 Riverside Ave. that will serve as its West Coast terminal, according to Bruce R. Springer of Grubb & Ellis, who represented the seller, Colton-based Pacific Equipment Co.

The project will include a 10,000-square-foot office building and a 30,000-square-foot maintenance building. Springer said. Shawn Murphy of MVP Commercial Real Estate represented U.S. Xpress, which is scheduled to occupy the facility after its completion in June.