Rip Curl to Build New HQ

Surfwear marketer Rip Curl USA is banking on the future. The company recently finalized a deal to buy 5.2 acres of land in California’s Orange County for its new corporate headquarters.

The company currently operates in Carlsbad, Calif., in San Diego County. Its new headquarters will be located in the San Clemente Industrial Park off Avenida Fabricante and Calle Extremo in San Clemente, Calif.

Rip Curl paid about $2.5 million for the land, according to Tustin, Calif.–based Coreland Cos., the real estate firm that negotiated the deal.

Coreland said Rip Curl looked at more than 20 sites in Orange County before it settled on the San Clemente Industrial Park, a 40-acre master-planned business park located near the famed Trestles surf spot and the county’s surfwear manufacturing base, which companies such as Quiksilver call home.

The 36-year-old company plans to begin construction in the coming months on an 80,000-square-foot facility, which will house offices and warehouse space. Rip Curl produces men’s and women’s tops and bottoms, as well as outerwear, surfboards and wet suits. The company, which originated in Victoria, Australia, in 1967 as a surfboard manufacturer, recently rolled out what it calls the world’s first stitchless boardshorts using an electro-welding process. —Robert McAllister