Industrial developer Goodman Group has leased 300,000 square feet at its nearly-completed logistics center in El Monte, a logistics hub in a Los Angeles industrial market that continues to lead the nation.
The newest tenant at Goodman Logistics Center El Monte is Mutual Trading Company, an L.A.-based Japanese food and restaurant supply company. Mutual Trading is consolidating five locations into one large operation at the complex, located on 43 acres at 4300 Shirley Avenue. The terms of the lease were not disclosed.
The 1.2 million-square-foot facility has available space, Goodman said in a press release Wednesday in announcing the deal. The complex is comprised of two buildings with a total of 147 dock doors, 164 trailer parking stalls, and office space.
Mutual Trading is leasing in the larger of the two buildings, which totals 663,200 square feet. The company was founded in the 1920s and imports and distributes Japanese specialties, including sushi products, cookware, many types of sake alcohol, and seasoning. The firm has nine properties around the U.S., including in San Diego, Las Vegas, and in New Jersey.
Goodman says its El Monte complex will be ready for occupancy in the fourth quarter. The Irvine firm picked up the development property in 2016 in a two-property deal worth $240 million with Alberstons Companies, an Idaho-based grocery company. It leased the other property, a warehouse facility in Santa Fe Springs, to logistics firm Damco last May.
The market for Class A industrial space in the L.A. area, particularly for logistics and warehousing space, is tight. L.A. is the top market in the country with a vacancy rate of just 1.6 percent in the first quarter of this year across all property classes.
The growth of online retail is driving demand for Class A space. Demand is such that tenants are revisiting Class B and Class C properties once considered obsolete, driving those rents to higher levels.
Industrial landlords are increasingly willing to forgo lease renewals with existing tenants, confident they can attract a higher-credit tenant that will pay higher rents.