USAA Real Estate is building a warehouse in the Riverside County city of Beaumont for a contract manufacturer that makes footwear and clothing for Skechers, Puma and other brands.
The investment firm has teamed up with Laguna Beach-based developer McDonald Property Group to build a 1.8 million-square-foot warehouse for United Legwear & Apparel, according to JLL, which brokered the deal on behalf of the tenant. CBRE represented USAA in the deal.
United Legwear & Apparel signed a long-term lease at the facility, which is expected to open in 2023.
The warehouse marks the second Inland Empire location for ULAC, which is headquartered in New York. The firm currently leases space at 1495 North Tamarind Avenue in Rialto, at a 390,000-square-foot building owned by Prologis.
The facility will include 40-foot clear heights, along with 30,000 square feet of office space, allowing ULAC to expand its design, distribution and manufacturing capabilities.
Scoring a lease under a build-to-suit deal is one of the ways tenants have been able to secure industrial space over the last year. A mere 0.6 percent of industrial space across Riverside and San Bernardino counties was vacant in the first quarter, according to CBRE. Pre-leasing also gives tenants an opportunity to lock in current industrial rents, protecting themselves against steep rises.
In April, Home Depot pre-leased a 1.1 million-square-foot facility in Ontario from Clarion Partners, part of Clarion’s 86-acre industrial construction plan for Ontario Ranch.
ULAC’s building also sits in a larger complex — USAA and McDonald’s Crossroads Logistics Center, an 85-acre master planned industrial complex at the intersection of West 4th Street and Prosperity Way in Beaumont.
Amazon has already leased a 640,000-square-foot building at the center, which it opened as a fulfillment warehouse in 2020. Wolverine Worldwide, another footwear manufacturer, has also leased a 720,000-square-foot warehouse at the complex.