Just as the heavy-duty gloves they make come in pairs, Mechanix Wear Inc. will soon have a new kind of pairing: With the addition of a new warehouse in the works, it’ll have two facilities in Valencia.
The glove manufacturer is planning to expand its local presence with the addition of another building at the IAC Commerce Center, CBRE officials said Tuesday.
“Mechanix Wear has had a great success in new sales opportunities, product line expansion, seasonal display volume and supply chain increases, requiring this expansion to occur,” Douglas Hunter, Mechanix Wear’s director of operations, said in a prepared statement. “Our CEO, Michael Hale, was heading this project and saw great potential in the IAC buildings near our facility. The location, size and layout fit our operational needs.”
Situated along Witherspoon Parkway, Mechanix Wear is expanding its footprint with a 94,000-square-foot building up the street at the corner of Avenue Valley View. After discussing the need to expand beyond their headquarters, the company looked within the area for a second facility to store and ship their products.
Mechanix Wear’s first building measures at 74,000 square feet, including 20,000 square feet of office space and a 54,000-square-foot warehouse for packaging and shipping gloves, according to their website. With an increase in costs and a facility that was over capacity, the second warehouse will “create better throughput systems, build seasonal operations, expand further on our product lines and safety stock and will help operate without capacity constraints,” Hunter’s statement said.
Mechanix Wear develops gloves for heavy-duty work, such as construction and military use, and wants to continue innovating through its own defined niche for its loyal customers, said Holly Schroeder, president and CEO of the Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corp., or SCVEDC.
“With the addition of Mechanix Wear, IAC is proving the demand for attractive and highly functional buildings is strong,” Craig Peters, executive vice president of CBRE, said in a news release issued by the SCVEDC. “We continue to see tremendous interest in this project from a wide range of companies.”
By including the additional space, Mechanix Wear will expand its services to big box retailers, national automotive chains, industrial safety and supply distributors, along with government and law enforcement customers, Hunter’s statement said. After evaluating all their options, Mechanix Wear made the choice to remain local with a second building in Valencia, at the IAC Commerce Center.
When it came down to Mechanix Wear’s need to expand, SCVEDC looked at the incentives, benefits and resources at the company’s disposal, Schroeder said.
The SCVEDC’s mission is to foster “a growth-friendly environment and unifying our region’s approach to economic development,” according to the organization’s website.
Peters represented Mechanix Wear during its effort to acquire the Building 2 plot, according to the news release from the SCVEDC.
The center is a 116-acre master-planned business area, one mile northwest of Interstate 5 and the Highway 126 interchange. It has nine buildings ranging from 94,000 to 213,000 square feet through three phases, according to the center’s website. Mechanix Wear will reside in Building 2, at the corner of Phase 1. The smallest plot was what was most needed for the company’s expansion, Peters said.
Through their relationship with CBRE, SCVEDC “will help through the next phase of the process, facilitating their permitting and (tentatively) fulfill this expansion,” Schroeder said Thursday.
The company’s growth brought in 27 new jobs, most of which are in the existing building, Hunter said.
Signage has already started to appear at the second building’s location, but the move is still in progress.
