Skechers Breaks Ground on $150M SoCal HQ Expansion

Construction of Skechers USA’s headquarters expansion in Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach, Calif., has gotten underway. The international footwear giant will enlarge the size of existing buildings and construct new space in an approximately $150 million project. The company will increase its footprint in the Los Angeles area’s South Bay submarket by nearly 180,000 square feet for a total of approximately 330,000 square feet of office, design and showroom space.

Since its launch in 1992, Skechers has maintained its headquarters in Manhattan Beach, just one beach town over from Hermosa Beach, where the company keeps the remainder of its home base. “South Bay—Manhattan Beach—is where the company started. As we have grown over the years, we have made an effort to grow within the community where we started,” a spokesperson with Skechers USA told Commercial Property Executive.

A new design center totaling more than 100,000 square feet in Hermosa Beach will be the jewel of the headquarters project. The building will rise adjacent to new executive offices comprising 20,000 square feet. The remainder of the construction activity will take place in Manhattan Beach, with the 20,000-square-foot expansion of an existing 55,000-square-foot office building at 330 S. Sepulveda Blvd. and the development of a new office structure encompassing 37,000 square feet across the street, at 305 S. Sepulveda Blvd.

DFH Architects is behind the design of Skechers’ new headquarters project. McCarthy Building Cos. is aboard as general contractor and expects to complete construction in 2022, with all buildings designed to achieve LEED Gold certification.

More elbowroom

With Skechers’ sales having increased 100 percent over the last four years, the shoe retailer’s addition of extra square footage in its hometown is a timely move. As for additional expansion plans, Skechers is refraining from commenting, as the company is on the verge of announcing its 2018 year-end earnings.

“This investment in our corporate headquarters allows us to better plan for the future and increase efficiencies,” David Weinberg, chief operating officer of Skechers USA, said in a prepared statement. “It will allow us to consolidate our teams, give us room to grow and enhance our work, design, meeting and showroom space.”

Skechers has been augmenting its footprint beyond just office space in the last few years. In 2018, the company inked a three-year lease for a 366,700-square foot industrial facility at 22705 Newhope St. in the Inland Empire’s Moreno Valley to supplement its 1.8 million-square-foot distribution facility located nearby. A year earlier, Skechers opened its largest mall-based factory outlet store in a 24,000-square-foot space at Ontario Mills in Ontario, Calif., and the company entered the Polish retail market in 2016 with a store at Galeria Mokotów in Warsaw. 

Images courtesy of Skechers