File photo.

Wonderful Co. has inked a 1 million square-foot lease to a “prominent Fortune 500 American food manufacturer” for a distribution center in Shafter.

The agribusiness giant built the 1,063,000 square-foot speculative building on a 70-acre site at its 1,625-acre Wonderful Industrial Park (WIP) in the Kern County community 18 miles northwest of Bakersfield.

Wonderful did not reveal the name of the tenant but said it’s a food manufacturer that will use the center to sort and ship goods across California, Nevada and Washington. More than 150 jobs will be created with operations expected to begin in the first quarter of 2023, according to a news release.

“With over 10 million square feet of occupied space in Wonderful Industrial Park by some of the best known brands in America, our park has become the premier logistics and distribution business park in the Western U.S. that reaches a population size and market that is comparable to New York and New Jersey’s. In terms of demand, we see no let up from tenants that require very large and efficient industrial real estate. In fact, we’re already underway with another 1 million-square-foot speculative building and have two tenant proposals in hand, as well as a speculative 400,000-square-foot building that will likely be leased before the building shell is completed,” said Joe Vargas, SIOR, president of Wonderful Real Estate Development.

WIP occupants include Essendant (Staples, Inc), American Tire Distributors, Formica and Hillman, as well as other third-party logistics companies that have found WIP’s location and amenities extremely profitable, according to the release.

Other large occupiers in the park include Ross Stores with 3 million square feet on 130 acres, Target’s 2 million square feet on 80 acres and Walmart at 630,000 square feet on 60 acres. Walmart’s prototype state of the art grocery-focused distribution center incorporates the most sophisticated automated sorting equipment and systems in the industry, according to the release.

Over the last 4 years, WIP has delivered three 1 million-square-foot warehouses and more than 4 million square feet in industrial space including both build-to-suit and speculative projects. In 2021, Amazon leased a 1 million-square-foot building on 72-acres located at 4500 Express within the WIP.

 

In addition to its industrial developments, WIP recently introduced the Wonderful Career Center, a 98,000-square-foot office project that includes office space for several Wonderful Co. brands as well as a vocational tech training center that features three classrooms, four labs with dock doors and an expansive conference room. The vocational school’s current offering is the Wonderful Technical Operator Program, with a curriculum that prepares students for high-paying roles through mechanical and electrical training.

In the recent lease to the American food company, the landlord was represented by Phil Lombardo. Cruise Adams, and Andrew Starnes at Cushman and Wakefield and the tenant was represented by Lynn Reich, Suzanne Serino, and Steve Bellitti at Colliers.