First major tenant for Inland Empire logistics hub opens DC

First major tenant for Inland Empire logistics hub opens DC Atlanta-based Newell Rubbermaid, which earlier this year signed a 10-year, $15 million deal to lease a custom-built bulk distribution center at the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, is set to open the recently completed facility today.
   Rubbermaid was SCLA's first signed tenant and the manufacturer's 407,612-square-foot facility is the first new structure built at the SCLA complex. The first phase of development at SCLA is being supported through a $350 million investment from Stirling Capital Investments, a joint venture between Foothill Ranch, Calif.-based development company Stirling Enterprises and DCT Industrial Trust Inc., a Denver-based industrial real estate investment trust firm.
   Under development by Stirling and the Victorville city government for nearly eight years, the proposed 8,500-acre SCLA project would convert the former air base into one of the largest combined rail, ground and air transportation centers on the West Coast. The complex is set to one day involve 65 million square feet of development and generate 13,000 jobs.
   The distribution center will be a key facility for Rubbermaid, allowing it to consolidate its number of worldwide warehouses from 96 to 50.
   Products manufactured by nearly two-dozen of the firm's divisions will funnel through the completed facility, streamlining the distribution of such name brands as Sharpie pens and Rolodex office products.
   'Over 50 percent of all of our goods are shipped on a less-than-full truck,' Art Garcia, Newell Rubbermaid's director of real estate and property, told the Daily Press earlier this year.
   'We'll never fill up the truck with pens,' he said, pointing to the firm's position as the largest manufacturer of pens and pencils, such as Paper Mate, Waterman and Parker. 'That's too many pens.'
   The new Rubbermaid facility will employ close to 70 workers, with the potential of up to several hundred if the firm takes advantage of its expansion options. The $6.3 billion firm currently employs more than a 100 workers at a warehouse facility in nearby Hesperia.
   Two additional projects at SCLA are under way, including the construction of two multitenant buildings and a 296,000-square-foot distribution building. A deal with BNSF Railway Co. to build a 3,500-acre rail yard at the SCLA is being negotiated.