Kroger signs $207 million deal for Los Angeles DC

Kroger signs $207 million deal for Los Angeles DC Cincinnati-based supermarket retailer Kroger Co. has signed a $207 million lease for a 552,000-square-foot distribution center to be located on a former 26.39-acre brownfield site in the city of Paramount near Los Angeles.
   Set to start construction early next year, the $50 million facility will be officially named the Birtcher Distribution Center and is expected to begin operations in the third quarter of 2008. Ralphs and Food 4 Less, divisions of Kroger, will use it as a logistics hub to service their outlets in Southern California.
   A joint venture of Birtcher Development and Investments and Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers LLC signed Kroger to the 30-year lease that will see the Ohio retailer as the facility's sole occupant.
   Birtcher officials said the deal is likely one of the largest industrial leases in the United States, and believe the deal represents a new national high in terms of the lease transaction value for a single industrial deal.
   Kroger operates more than 2,400 supermarkets and department stores in 31 states.