Famous Footwear to Build Tejon Ranch Warehouse
Madison, Wis.–based Famous Footwear is building a 350,000-square-foot distribution center in Tejon Ranch, a massive 422-square-mile master-planned development located in an environmentally sensitive section of Kern County, about one hour north of Los Angeles off Interstate 5.
The center will accommodate distribution for the company’s Western region. The retailer, a division of St. Louis–based Brown Shoe Co., has about 1,100 stores nationwide.
Famous Footwear will join Swedish furniture retailer Ikea in the 1,450-acre Tejon Industrial Complex. Both properties sit in a newly designated Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ), which entitles them to customs benefits and duties exemptions and deferrals.
The FTZ was granted this spring after a three-year application process. In May, the owners of Tejon Ranch reached a landmark agreement with five major environmental organizations, including the Audubon Society and the Sierra Club, to preserve about 90 percent, or 240,000 acres, of the ranch as natural habitat.
Tejon Ranch sits in a position to take advantage of goods going through the California ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland. St. Louis–based design-build company Clayco will oversee construction for Famous Footwear. Clayco executives looked at several other locations in California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah before deciding on Tejon Ranch. Clayco also developed a similar facility for Gap Inc. in Fishkill, N.Y.
“The master plan for the Tejon industrial complex addresses almost every critical issue of the industrial space users’ location decision,” said Barry Hibbard, vice president of industrial and commercial development for Tejon Ranch. “The complex provides inbound and outbound efficiencies for goods movement central to the major consumer markets of California and accessible to all the Western states. The labor base is also deep and highly qualified.”
When it opens next year, the Famous Footwear warehouse will employ about 120 full-time workers.
The Central Valley is becoming a more strategic location for warehouse operators. VF Corp. opened an 800,000-square-foot facility in Visalia, Calif.
Properties within the 177-acre FTZ are being developed jointly by Tejon Ranch and The Rockefeller Group Development Corp. Incidentally, the Tejon Ranch Co. has launched Tejon, a line of menswear inspired by ranch life. The line features chinos and khakis as well as woven shirts priced to retail from $95 to $125. The clothing is manufactured in the United States by Gitman Bros. and is being sold through retailers such as H. Walkers. —Robert McAllister
