BLT Lands Orange County Full-Building Tenant

17466 Daimler St. Image courtesy of BLT Enterprises

Dental products provider Glidewell Dental Ceramics has signed a 10-year, 40,650-square-foot lease with landlord BLT Enterprises for a single-tenant industrial building in Irvine, Calif. The value of the contract reaches approximately $6 million. Lee & Associates worked on behalf of the owner, while CBRE represented the tenant.

BLT acquired the property in the second half of last year for $8.9 million, according to CommercialEdge data. The former owner, manufacturer of defense and technological ceramic products Ceradyne Inc., operated at the facility from 2002 until British manufacturer Avon Protection acquired the company in 2020.

The property at 17466 Daimler St. is within a mile of the McArthur Medical Campus and the Edwards Lifesciences Corp. headquarters. John Wayne Airport is some 3 miles from the facility, while the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are some 30 miles west.

In line with the company’s strategy of repositioning assets, BLT implemented an extensive capital improvement program to the 1969-built facility. The renovations, paired with Orange County’s strong industrial fundamentals, contributed to the company securing the long-term tenant, BLT Vice President of Real Estate Lisa Tamayo said in prepared remarks.

The Lee & Associates team that represented the landlord included Senior Vice President Justin Smith and Associate Grant LaBounty, while CBRE Senior Vice President Allison Kelly arranged the transaction on behalf of the tenant.

Orange County industrial in high demand

Orange County’s recent industrial performance has been the strongest in six years, with a net absorption of 1.1 million square feet in the second quarter, according to recent Lee & Associates research.

Land scarcity and elevated demand kept continued to keep rents high across Orange County. The average rate reached $11.41 per square foot as of July, the highest across major markets, a recent CommercialEdge report shows. Meanwhile, as the county’s pipeline continues to lag, rent growth should remain healthy.

As of July, Orange County also registered a healthy 4.0 percent industrial vacancy rate, a 10-basis-point increase compared to the previous month, but still below the 5.8 percent U.S. figure, the same report shows. The Inland Empire kept the top spot with a tight 1.4 percent vacancy, followed by Nashville (2.0 percent) and Indianapolis (2.4 percent).