Rubbermaid opens doors on new Victorville distribution center

Rubbermaid opens doors on new Victorville distribution center Less than two months after opening the doors for the first time, Newell Rubbermaid's new distribution center in Victorville is officially open for business.
   Earlier this year the Atlanta-based manufacturer signed a 10-year $15 million deal to lease the custom-built bulk distribution center at the Southern California Logistics Airport. 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 distribution center will allow Rubbermaid 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, which is expected to operate at capacity within a year, will employ nearly 90 workers, with the potential of up to several hundred if the firm takes advantage of its expansion options. SCLA officials said that discussions were underway to possibly expand the new facility by 600,000 square feet in the next five years. The $6.3 billion Rubbermaid firm also employs more than a 100 workers at a warehouse facility in nearby Hesperia.
   Under development by Stirling Capital Investments 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. Two additional projects at SCLA are under way, including 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.
   The first phase of development at SCLA is being supported through a $350 million investment from SCI, a joint venture between Foothill Ranch, Calif.-based development company Stirling Enterprises and Denver-based industrial real estate investment trust firm DCT Industrial Trust Inc.