Orange County Business Journal article 4/7/2000

Home Shopping Network Takes All of Western Realco’s Huge Spec Warehouse

From the Orange County Business Journal Issue Date: 4/17/00

PETER BRENNAN

Build an 818,000-square-foot warehouse on spec and they will come.

That’s exactly what Newport Beach-based Western Realco did. Home Shopping Network has signed a 10-year lease valued at more than $30 million for all of Western Realco’s Sierra Gateway Commerce Center in Fontana.

“It’s definitely the largest warehouse ever built on spec in Southern California,” said Vance Mape, president of Western Realco. “It was a wonderful deal for us. It’s always better to get one tenant than several tenants.”

Western Realco developed the warehouse at a cost of $24 million. Mape secured financing for the deal by bringing in Des Moines, Iowa-based Principal Capital Management as a partner.

Tustin-based Bastien and Associates Inc. was the architect of the facility. It was built by Whittier-based Oltmans Construction Co. “The facility is huge,” said Gary Bastien. “It’s the size of 14 football fields.”

Western Realco, a developer of large industrial projects, has completed 1.5 million square feet of projects in the past six months.