Celebrating a connection decades in the making by some counts, Santa Clarita officials loaded up on the city’s trolley and took the inaugural cruise up Needham Ranch Parkway after cutting the ribbon on Monday morning.
The new two-lane road provides a dedicated access point off Newhall Avenue for a 50-acre business center once known as part of the Gates King Property — as well as a major milestone for The Center at Needham Ranch, according to Santa Clarita Mayor Cameron Smyth.
“To see it come to where we are now, it really is amazing and certain a couple decades in the making,” Smyth said Monday after the ceremony. “I think the city is always looking at improving our job-housing balance, and any time we’re able to add good-quality jobs within the city, it’s going to be beneficial for the residents.”
Major clients like DrinkPAK, a national beverage manufacturer, Amazon, the global retailer, and Illumination Dynamics are just a few of the tenants that occupy the fully leased business park.
And as always in real estate, location is critical, too.
Jason Crawford, director of community development for Santa Clarita, said the project shows the balance the city wants to see in terms of where economic drivers are created.
“The business park is important not only because of the business and jobs it brings, but because of its location,” Crawford said. “We specifically are trying to be strategic about creating job centers along the eastern corridor so that residents not only don’t have to drive to L.A. for jobs, but they don’t have to drive to the west side for jobs.”
The project’s developer, Trammel Crow, heaped praise upon the city’s cooperation, with Philip Tsui, senior vice president, saying there aren’t many local governments where he can call up the directors and not only reach them, but also get their help.
By most measures the project is considered a success, thanks in no small part to the project supplying something the city can’t seem to fill demand for fast enough — industrial warehouse space.
The city currently has a vacancy rate of less than 3% for such real estate. The Center at Needham Ranch was announced to be at 100% occupancy for its first phase, 1.7 million square feet, in May 2023, prior to the project’s completion that winter.
The project, which was approved in August 2017, is expected to ultimately bring more than 4 million square feet of industrial space, according to previous reports.
