Majestic completes final phase of business/retail center
San Gabriel Valley Tribune - December 17, 2001
INDUSTRY -- Majestic Realty Co. has completed the final phase of its
450-acre Majestic Spectrum business/retail center in Chino, officials said
this week.
The $250 million project in the city's west end includes a business park
with 5.6 million square feet of space and the Chino Spectrum Marketplace,
which has 600,000 square feet of retail space.
"We bought the land in 1986 and broke ground on the first phase of the
project in 1988," said Kevin McCarthy, Majestic's vice president and director
of development. "There have been eight phases in all."
Industry-based Majestic went through years of land entitlements to piece
the project area together, McCarthy said, and the company also established an
assessment district to help pay for needed land improvements, such as sewers
and streets.
The newest tenants in the business park are General Cable Corp., which
recently leased 165,000 square feet of space and Best Buy, which is using
350,000 square feet as a distribution center and customer service center for
its area stores.
Other major tenants include Ball Corp., which makes one-liter and two-liter
bottles for PepsiCo., the parent company of Pepsi, and Hussmann Corp., the
nation's largest manufacturer of custom freezers and coolers.
"Out of the six buildings we built in the last phase, only three remain to
be leased," McCarthy said. "And we're in negotiations on those."
Earl Nelson, Chino's director of redevelopment, said the project has been
a boom to the city.
"Some of our biggest sales tax generators are in the industrial area," he
said. "If they sell to end-users in California we get (a portion) of the sales tax."
And Spectrum Marketplace has become a regional draw, added Nelson.
"It's provided a level of shopping that wasn't available in other places,"
he said. "It attracts shoppers from the west end of the city and from Chino
Hills, Diamond Bar and Walnut."
All told, the industrial park and retail center employ about 5,000 people,
McCarthy said.
About 40 percent of Chino's industrial development is manufacturing, while
the other 60 percent is warehousing.
In a study done earlier this year, regional economist John Husing said the
city's importance will grow in the coming years because because the supply of
industrial space in Ontario and Corona is becoming scarce.
The Majestic Spectrum development is bounded by Schaefer Avenue to the
north, Eucalyptus Avenue to the south, Pipeline Avenue to the west and Ramona
Avenue to the east.
Majestic Realty Co. is one of the nation's largest privately owned real
estate firms, with a commercial retail and industrial portfolio totaling more
than 50 million square feet.
The company specializes in the planning and development of premier,
master-planned business parks.
Kevin Smith
Staff Writer |
