Mullen Automotive Leases Industrial Building in Fullerton

Mullen Automotive has inked a lease for a 121,600-square-foot industrial building in Fullerton.

The Brea-based electronic vehicle manufacturer leased the building at 1500 East Walnut Avenue, the Orange County Register reported. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The building, built last year on the 5.4-acre site of a former Kraft Heinz Lunchables plant, contains 6,234 square feet of offices.

The industrial portion has 32-foot clear heights, 17 dock-high doors and two grade-level doors, plus a large fenced yard.

Link Logistics, a New York-based unit of Blackstone, which developed the building, was represented by brokers Ben Seybold and Sean Ward of CBRE.

“Mullen Automotive … was drawn to the freestanding building because of its heavy power capacity and proximity to its own headquarters in nearby Brea,” Seybold told the Register. “The new lease helps the company expand their local operations and Orange County footprint.”

Mullen makes commercial EV trucks and cargo vans. The company’s first Class 3 trucks rolled off the assembly line this summer in Tunica, Miss.

The Fullerton manufacturing site was once home to a Claussen pickle factory, beginning in the mid-1970s, according to the Register.

It became a Kraft Heinz plant in 1989, making the firm’s all-in-one, pre-packaged Lunchables meals. Kraft Foods closed the factory in 2018, leaving hundreds of people out of work.

Orange County has become the locus for other EV carmakers and suppliers, including Harbinger Motors, Rivian Automotive, Karma Automotive, Tesla and EV battery startup Romeo Power.

In September, Harbinger leased a 165,200-square-foot plant in Garden Grove, with plans to include a new headquarters.

Link has more than 3,500 warehouse and industrial properties across the U.S., according to its website. Of those, 119 properties containing 6 million square feet are in OC.

— Dana Bartholomew