Developer Requests Permit to Build for Newell Rubbermaid

http://vvdailypress.com/news/20061208/distribution-center-coming-to-scla

Distribution center coming to SCLA

Developer requests permit to build for Newell Rubbermaid

TATIANA PROPHET DECEMBER 08, 2006 VICTORVILLE — A developer plans to build a 400,000-squarefoot distribution center for office- products giant Newell Rubbermaid at Southern California Logistics Airport, the Daily Press has learned from building plans obtained through an open records request.

Stirling Enterprises, a Foothill Ranch company, is designating the building as the first of “several” to be built in the next 30 months, according to a staff report to the Victorville Planning Commission. The other buildings would be built without tenants on a speculative basis.

Stirling, through a public relations company, declined to comment for the story, and calls to Atlanta-based Newell Rubbermaid were not returned.

The city of Victorville has been marketing the airport as an uncongested logistics hub, aiming to replace the jobs lost when George Air Force Base closed in 1992.

The city proved to make an accurate prediction about the coming economic climate: Trade with China has almost tripled in the last five years, even after adjusting for inflation. With more goods than ever before coming through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, companies need a place to stage and assemble components and ship them off to the rest of the region and the country.

Michael Stenerson / Staff Photographer Southern California Logistics Airport is planning new construction ventures at the base, beginning with a 400,000-square-foot distribution center for office-products giant Newell Rubbermaid.

So far the number of companies operating at the airport remains modest and cargo flows have not yet taken off — mostly because land is still available in the southern portion of the Inland Empire. But that land is disappearing fast, and the city expects logistics operations to move to the High Desert. The question is, how soon?

The Rubbermaid building, which sits on a 49-acre parcel, would be the largest construction project since the Air Force base closed. Whether it is an early herald of things to come within the next few years, or it is the first wave of a flood-tide of business, remains to be seen.

“It could be a random event, a precursor to when we see the major movement up there, or the start of it,” said economist John Husing, a consultant to the city of Victorville. “But this is what you’ll start to see, the expansion of logistics to join with what’s going on in the aircraft services industry.”

Documents do not reveal how many jobs the project would bring. But a purely speculative analysis of the square footage reveals that it could generate at least 260 jobs, based on the idea that the planned distribution center is about one-third the size of the Wal-Mart Distribution Center in Apple Valley. That facility employs about 800 people. The total number of jobs at the airport was about 1,000 at the beginning of this year.

Newell-Rubbermaid makes the famous Sharpie pen, among other things. It also owns the stroller company Graco Children’s Products and makes goods in several categories: cleaning and organizational products, window coverings, tools and hardware, and cookware.

Regardless of whether the tenants come, one thing’s certain: The Newell Rubbermaid warehouse is just the tip of the iceberg that encompasses Stirling’s ambitions for the airport. The 49-acre parcel slated for the project is one of 17 parcels that Stirling has bought from the city and plans to develop.

Both Stirling and the city are moving forward to get the airport ready, planning demolition of existing buildings and installing the infrastructure needed for a logistics park.

For Husing, whatever the pace of the development, the news is good.

“When you see something like that, you begin to feel that the force is with us.”