Logistics Firm Signs 45K-SF Lease in SoCal’s Orange County

The industrial market in Orange County, Calif., may have simmered down a bit this summer from its recent peaks, but the region is still attracting tenants looking for tens of thousands of square feet of warehouse space.

Take logistics solutions firm Enso Logistics, which signed a lease for 45,000 square feet for the entire building at 1830 Raymer Avenue in Fullerton, just a few miles east of Fullerton Municipal Airport and north of Interstate 5 and I-91. Landlord LBA Realty was represented in the lease deal by CBRE (CBRE), while JLL (JLL)’s Xavier Nolasco represented Enso Logistics. Other terms of the lease were not immediately available. 

“Despite some softening in Orange County industrial leasing, the market remains one of the strongest in the United States,” Nolasco, a JLL senior vice president, said in a statement.  “We continue to see moderate demand from a wide range of firms including logistics, aerospace and automotive.”

Industrial vacancy hit an all-time low for Orange County in late 2022 at less than 1 percent, though it has risen modestly since then to about 4.6 percent, according to a second-quarter market outlook by JLL. That’s the highest rate seen in the county since late 2012. Total availability in the county has also risen to 6.6 percent, above the high-water mark seen in early 2010. 

Still, the county boasts the lowest vacancy rate and highest rents across Southern California, per the report, and gross leasing volume grew by 14 percent quarter-over-quarter (even if it is 15 percent below the trailing five-year quarterly average). 

A second-quarter industrial analysis for the county by CBRE paints a similar picture, finding only four leases over 100,000 square feet were signed in Orange County within that period. 

Nick Trombola can be reached at NTrombola@commercialobserver.com.