Belvedere Citizen / Eastside Journal, Number 42, 15 October 1980 — Company signs long-term lease at TELACU park [ARTICLE]

Company signs long-term lease at TELACU park

TELACU Industrial Park will break ground next month on Its final manufacturing buildings that will bring 604 jobs into the community. The two new buildings, totalling more than half a million square feet, have been signed to a long-term lease to Stationers Corporation, a 60-year-old Los Angeles based office supply, furniture, and printing firm. When the buildings are complete in early 1981, Stationers will establish its corporate offices, printing facilities, furniture showroom and stationery retail store on the site.

Stationers becomes the third major company to headquarter in the park, joining Aaron Brothers Art Marts, the Federated Group and Aqua-Pet Industries. TELACU Industrial Park is a project undertaken by The East Los Angeles Community Union to attract new labor-intensive ventures in the economically depressed area. TELACU purchased the 46-acre site in the City of Commerce on the East L A. border from the B.F. Goodrich Tire Co. for $5 million and immediately set out to demolish the 50-year-old tire manufacturing structures and erect modern facilities in their place. REACHED GOAL TELACU President David C. Lizarraga noted that with completion of the new structures the park will have reached its construction goal two years ahead of schedule and brought 900 jobs into the site. ■There were those skeptics who said we could not have pulled off a project of this size in such a short lime frame,” Lizarraga said. "But we've proven those skeptics wrong and shown that East Los Angeles is a viable location for industrial growth." The 15-year lease with Stationers is valued in excess of $lB million. The company will do extensive improveaments in both

buildings that will allow it adquate expansion area for the duration of the lease. The buildings themselves will be 235,000 and 270,000 square feet in size and constructed of tilt-up concrete in a Spanish motif in harmony with existing buildings in the park. Both buildings will front on Olympic Blvd. and border on a newly constructed road named after TELACU's first executive director, Avenida Esteban Torres. SHOWROOM The larger building will consist of a 10,000 square foot furniture showroom . and stationery retail store, with the remaining footage devoted primarily to distribution of stationery items. The smaller building will contain 35,000 square feet of office space and 200,000 square feet for a modern printing operation. Stationers presently employs 300 people in four separate facilities throughout the I.o» Angeles area. Their decision to locale in the park stems from their desire to remain in the Central Los Angeles area due to the excellent labor supply and to retain many long term employees living in the vicinity. With the consolidation of all operations, and when fully operational, the firm will employ more than 600 people. Financing for the new structures is being

provided by a coalition of private and public sources. Wells Fargo Bank is providing a $7 million construction loan, with another $3,6 from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Urban Development Action Grant program (UDAG). AGENCIES Agencies playing a key role in the park's development are the City Of Commerce, Economic Development Administration, Community Services Administration, the Ford Foundation, Bankers Life Co. of Des Moines, lowa, and Crocker National Bank. Thomas E. Thompson of Majestic Realty Co. handled negotiations between TELACU Industrial Park and Stationers. Commerce Construction Co. is prime contractor. The final construction phase of the project consists of a five-story commercial/resource center on the northwest corner. Start date is planned for late 1980 with one-year construction, time. When complete, the park will contain more than 900,000 square feet of commercial/industrial space and employ nearly 2,000 people.