CBRE Helps QVC Shop SoCal

QVC’s New Distribution Center

By Gail Kalinoski, Contributing Editor

CBRE Inc. brokers on both coasts played a big role in helping QVC, the world’s leading video and e-commerce retailer, lease more than 1 million square feet in what will be its first West Coast distribution center in California’s Inland Empire.

The 1.1 million-square-foot state-of-the-art facility will be built by SARES-REGIS Group in a recently acquired 150-acre site off Interstate 10 in Ontario. QVC’s distribution center will be the largest of the seven buildings constructed on property recently purchased from the Meredith family.

Mike Barker of CBRE’s Wayne, Pa., office and Erik Wanland and Jay Dick of its Ontario office represented QVC in the lease. Chuck Noble, a principal broker of Lee & Associates, represented the Meredith family, along with his colleagues John Hatzis and Dave Hunsaker. Joe McKay, also of Lee & Associates, represented SRG in the lease transaction.

The new LEED-certified QVC distribution center will use high-efficiency systems for lighting, heating and cooling and have a 250 kW solar array on the rooftop. Opening a West Coast facility will also lower QVC’s use of trucking by more than 10 million miles annually, leading to a reduction of more than 35 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year, CBRE said in a prepared statement.

QVC’s current distribution centers are in Suffolk, Va.; Lancaster, Pa.; Rocky Mount, N.C.; and Florence, S.C. The California facility, expected to open by the third quarter of 2016, will be designed to accommodate approximately 20 percent of QVC’s total U.S. business.

“This new distribution center will enable us to efficiently and swiftly serve our customers throughout the Western United States,” James Reid, vice president of distribution operations for the West Chester, Pa.-based company, said in the CBRE statement.

The company plans to employ 500 people by 2018 and add another 500 workers by 2020. The QVC facility will be one of Ontario’s largest distribution centers and among the city’s top employers, according to city officials.

“Ontario is known for being the transportation hub for all of Southern California. We offer unique opportunities for businesses to come here to utilize our interstate highways, our rail systems and our international airport,” Council Member Alan Wapner said in a prepared statement.

CBRE credited state and local officials in California with helping seal the deal for the Ontario location. QVC was awarded a California Competes tax credit.