Tag Archives: textile

American Apparel To Continue Operations in Downtown L.A.

Clothing Maker Inks 10-Year Deal With Landlord Meruelo Maddux

The Downtown-based garment maker American Apparel has reached a 10-year agreement with landlord Meruelo Maddux Properties to stay in its 800,000-square-foot, Warehouse District headquarters, according to American Apparel financial filings.

Although American Apparel’s lease expired in December 2008, it has continued to occupy the pink factory building at Seventh and Alameda streets. The extension comes more than fourth months after Meruelo Maddux, Downtown’s largest landlord, entered bankruptcy.

Prior to reaching the deal, American Apparel, which employs about 5,000 workers at the 747 Warehouse St. factory, was mulling a move. The company considered an old Boeing plant in Long Beach, among other potential new homes, said their real estate broker.

“There were other considerations, other buildings to look at, but Meruelo stepped up,” he said.

American Apparel represents Mereulo Maddux’s largest tenant, both in terms of the size of its space and the value of its former lease.

Terms of the new lease were not disclosed.

American Apparel CEO Dov Charney said the lease was agreed to this month, but declined to comment further on the deal. Richard Meruelo, CEO of Meruelo Maddux, could not be reached immediately Tuesday afternoon.

In addition to housing almost all business operations, the factory has also served as a massive billboard for the company to promote itself and its progressive, often immigration-oriented political messages. American Apparel can also now safely cling to its various mottos touting its “Made in Downtown L.A.” cache.

The building’s sprawling parking lot is also known as the site of festive blowout warehouse sales that draw thousands of young buyers looking for discounted t-shirts, leggings, short shirts and underwear.   by Ryan Vaillancourt, Staff Writer, Downtown News.

Forever 21 Purchases Two Large Buildings

Forever 21, the large garment manufacturer of young women’s clothing, has acquired two large buildings in the past year.  The first building is the 370,000 square foot Overland Terminal facility at the intersection of Alameda St and Olympic Blvd in Downtown Los Angeles with a price of $20 M.  This multistory building has parking and dock high loading.  The second purchase was in the City of Vernon on Sierra Pine Ave.  This collection of several Class B buildings totals near 130,000 square feet.  Forever 21 was the tenant in the buildings and the sale price was approximately $6.5 M.

The company is based in Downtown Los Angeles and occupies several hundred thousand square feet of buildings at Alameda St and 20th St.

The City of Vernon And Its Industries

city-of-vernon-aerial1

The City of Vernon is the smallest among the cities of Los Angeles County when ranked by geographic area or population. The city’s economic impact, however, is far larger than one might expect. Indeed, as one of Los Angeles County’s “industrial cities” – along with the Cities of Commerce and Industry – Vernon is a vital economic center.

Given its industrial profile, Vernon plays its biggest role in the Food Manufacturing area. Vernon-based food product companies employ almost 10,700 workers, more than 15% of the Los Angeles County total for this group. Vernon also plays an important role in the region’s Fashion–Apparel and Textile Design/Manufacturing/ Wholesale industry cluster, with more than 11,200 employees or 10.66% of the L.A. County total.

Other regional industry clusters in which Vernon plays a large role include Furniture and Home Furnishings (with an employment share of 5.53%), Fabricated Metal Products and Industrial Machinery (with 3.4%), Toys (with 2.4%), Auto Parts (also 2.4%), and Wholesale Trade and Logistics (with nearly 2%).

Vernon, due to its historic role as a meat packing center, has long been home to a variety of animal waste processing and rendering industries. Rendering, for those who don’t know, is a process that converts waste animal tissue into stable, value-added materials such as lard, tallow or bone meal. Rendering can refer to any processing of animal byproducts into more useful materials, or more narrowly to the rendering of whole animal fatty tissue into purified fats.

Sources: City of Vernon, California Employment Development Department (QCEW data series), LAEDC.