Skechers signs lease for massive Inland Empire DC

Skechers signs lease for massive Inland Empire DC Manhattan Beach-based shoe manufacturer Skechers USA Inc. said Tuesday it has agreed to be the sole occupant of a proposed 1.8-million-square-foot Inland Empire distribution center facility, in what may be one of the nation's largest single-tenant industrial leases.
   Skechers plans to use the Moreno Valley facility, set for completion in early 2009, as a distribution center for the firm's products throughout the United States and Canada. The nearly half-mile-long building will be used by the shoemaker to consolidate operations at five Inland Empire buildings under one roof.
   “We believe this is the largest industrial lease by a single tenant under one roof ever in the United States,” real estate broker Darla Longo of CB Richard Ellis told the Los Angeles Times. CB Richard Ellis represented both Skechers and building developer HF Logistics in the transaction.
   Financial details of the lease were not released, though estimates based on current Inland Empire industrial rents would put the deal in the $1 million-per-year range.
   The building, with projected construction costs of at least $100 million, will feature a pick/pack automation system to build outgoing truckload shipments. When fully operational, Skechers estimates that the facility will require about 800 regular workers and an additional 300 workers during the back-to-school peak season.