CAbi is an apparel company that needed to consolidate its operations from three Southern California facilities into a single large facility to accommodate growth. The client's team worked with a commercial real estate firm to analyze occupancy scenarios, identify space needs, explore facility options, and negotiate an agreement. They secured a 189,223 square foot Class A warehouse in Carson that met the client's requirements and included a significant landlord contribution, free rent, and favorable lease terms. The new facility allows the client to implement efficiencies and maintain its company culture under one roof.

1. Client:
CAbi
Building Address:
21750 Arnold Center Drive
Carson, CA
Transaction Type:
Relocation
Size:
189,223 RSF
Services Provided:
Tenant Representation
Challenge
CAbi (Carol Anderson by invitation) is an apparel/fashion company focused
on designing woman’s clothing and creating a unique experience through its
thousands of individual sales representatives. The company had occupied
two Southern California facilities for many years and had grown into a third
due to their tremendous growth and brand success. CAbi realized in order to
accommodate current and future demand as well as maintaining the company
culture, CAbi must evaluate all potential operational scenarios with a focus on
getting all functions under one roof. One major challenge was identifying a
large Class A warehouse facility in a market that boasted a 2.6% vacancy and
would allow for a significant amount of office to be constructed.
Action
Our team began the process by assisting CAbi in analyzing a variety of
occupancy scenarios that included remaining in the existing three buildings
and expanding to a fourth, consolidating, bifurcating certain functions of
the operations and how to integrate and implement new systems to garner
efficiencies within the operations. Over the initial 3 months of the process,
it became evident consolidating the operations would not only produce the
lowest overall operating costs but also allow CAbi to redefine the culture of
the organization as they had occupied two of their existing facilities for well
over 15 years. We also led CAbi through a process of quantifying the amount
of space required by each department/function and ultimately created a
“project scope” that outlined the specific space needs of the operations.
Our team explored, evaluated and negotiated on select facilities that could
accommodate the multiple functions of CAbi’s requirement. In conjunction
with our Project Management Services, we were able to compare total costs
of each building under consideration which included capital contributions for
the select office and warehouse/material handling build out requirements.
At the conclusion of our leverage creation process and detailed budget for
each opportunity under consideration, CAbi was able to select the most ideal
facility and structure while understanding the total cost implication.
Result
Our team was able to secure a Flagship 189,223 square foot Class A facility
located in Carson that not only accommodated the warehouse requirements
but also allowed CAbi to construct the necessary building improvements.
The overall economic package included a significant landlord funded capital
allowance, multiple months of free rent, an aggressive rent schedule,
operating expense caps and liberal use of “how” we constructed the space.
Given the above standard amount of office CAbi required, we secured a
transaction that eliminated any future restoration requirements from CAbi
should they elect to relocate at the end of their 10-year lease term. In
addition to the overall economic structure, the building features allow CAbi to
implement a new material handling system that is oriented towards producing
significant efficiencies for apparel related distribution uses.
Team Experience
CAbi