Sprouts, Pac-Man publisher take 500K sf at Goodman warehouse in OC

Sprouts Farmers Market and Bandai Namco, the game company behind Pac-Man, have leased the remaining 511,000 square feet at Goodman Group’s 1.5 million-square-foot logistics center in Fullerton. 

The grocery chain will occupy a 337,000-square-foot building at the Orange County complex, while the Tokyo-based video game company is taking 173,800 square feet, Goodman announced on Wednesday. CBRE’s Sean Ward and Ben Seybold represented Goodman on the leases. 

Located at 1829 Orangethorpe Avenue, the four-building complex is still under construction. The City of Fullerton approved the project in late 2020, according to City Council documents. 

Last year, Samsung leased two buildings at the project, totaling more than 1 million square feet. 

Though some companies, including Amazon.com and FedEx, have pulled back on opening new distribution centers, industrial vacancy across Orange County has dropped to historic lows over the last three years, as the pandemic has spurred more people to shop online. About 1 percent of industrial space across the county was available in the fourth quarter of last year, according to JLL.

Average asking rates for northern Orange County warehouse and distribution centers at the end of last year was $1.63 per square foot a month, according to JLL. 

Based on those averages, Sprouts’ lease has an estimated value of $6.6 million a year and Bandai Namco’s at $3.4 million a year, though both are likely to be locked in at higher rents given the project is still under construction. 

Sprouts will use the warehouse as a distribution center to serve its grocery stores, according to the firm’s supply chain head, Joe Hurley. 

Bandai Namco’s new warehouse is located about 20 miles north of its Orange County offices at 15500 Sand Canyon Avenue in Irvine, where it leases about 70,000 square feet.