Historically, apparel companies have set up shop in downtown L.A.’s Fashion District, then move on to Vernon or Commerce when they need more space.
But YMI Jeanswear Inc., a growing denim and fashion company, opted to stay in Los Angeles, buying space at a new large business park in Boyle Heights.
What’s more, it’s bringing other apparel companies along, too.
YMI President David Vered wants to turn what’s called the Dynamic Spectrum complex into kind of a shadow fashion district for Los Angeles – an apparel center that will draw buyers to showrooms and make it easier for fabric suppliers to make the rounds.
So he recruited a friend, Peter Ahn and his wife, Kelly, owners of women’s clothing maker Cecico, to share the building. Others are starting to cluster there, too.
“We wanted the Spectrum to have fashion-orientated companies,” Vered said. “It draws more people to the Spectrum, and generally speaking you look to be within an area where your industry is.”
Above all, the gated 12.5-acre Spectrum, near downtown at the East L.A. Interchange, provided the space that suited his needs. The largest of four completed buildings is 108,000 square feet, which is what the company needs for its operations and 55 employees.
“It’s hard to come by buildings this large in the Fashion District,” said Ken Jackson, director of sales and acquisitions for downtown L.A. developer Dynamic Builders, which owns the site. “And if there is a building that is 100,000 square feet, it’s not one floor. It’s going to be two or three floors.”
YMI, which started moving into its new headquarters in April and celebrated the completion of the project in October, was the first to commit to purchasing land and constructing a building at the property. After that, Cecico purchased the second building, a 48,000-square-foot space.
Then juniors’ clothing maker Morningstar Fashion rented a unit in the third building, with an option to purchase. Most recently, a women’s plus-size clothing maker was set to close escrow on two units totaling 20,000 square feet in a fourth building last week.
Nonapparel businesses at Spectrum include prepaid mobile phone provider Boost Mobile and billboard owner-operator Lamar Advertising Co.; both are leasing space in the fourth building. There’s 67,000 square feet of vacant space on the upper floors of the third and fourth buildings, and the complex has space for more buildings.
Iqbal Hassan, president of downtown L.A. real estate firm Quantum Associates, said the majority of L.A.’s apparel companies get their start in the Fashion District but then move out of the area in search of larger buildings to house their expanding operations.
“Larger garment companies that still want to be in and around Los Angeles tend to be in Commerce and Vernon where they can accommodate trucks and so forth,” Hassan said. “This facility is trying to bridge that gap for someone who wants to be closer to Los Angeles and not deal with the traffic of Commerce or Vernon.”
From the Fashion District, it’s about two and a half miles to YMI’s complex but about eight miles to Commerce.
Hassan said when apparel companies are located together in one area they can cater to retail buyers and apparel-related businesses such as fabric suppliers.
“There is a synergy added to all the garments companies if they are in one area,” he said.
City view
During the years, the Boyle Heights property has been the site of a Los Angeles Times printing plant and later a Yellow Pages printing facility. Dynamic Builders, which develops office, retail and industrial buildings, acquired the property from Verizon in late 2007.
At first, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s office was working to get Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf to move its corporate headquarters, roasting facility and bakery to the property, but the deal fell through. Coffee Bean didn’t return calls seeking comment.
Vered got his start in the Fashion District, buying and selling discount apparel. With partners Moshe Zaga and Michael Godigian, he launched YMI in 2000, first setting up in Vernon, then moving to a bigger site within the border of Los Angeles as the company became a major player in the juniors’ denim market in 2005. The company’s merchandise, which is designed locally and manufactured overseas in China and Vietnam, sells for $25 to $38.
The company found that it needed more space for its corporate headquarters and distribution warehouse as a result of its expansion into young girls’ denim and juniors’ outerwear such as coats and jackets.
But Vered, who emigrated from Israel 20 years ago, was adamant that the business remain in the city.
“We wanted to keep the jobs here in the city and not move out of the city,” Vered said, admiring the view of the downtown skyline from his office. “And Dynamic showed us this location and it couldn’t be any better. You aren’t boxed in between buildings.”
The Mayor’s Office worked with Dynamic Builders and YMI to make sure the project wasn’t held up by the city’s entitlement and permitting processes. However, the company didn’t receive any incentives from the city to move its operations to the site. State advantages are available because the property is in an enterprise zone and a federal empowerment zone, which provide incentives such as tax and hiring credits to businesses. YMI is planning to apply for the incentives.
The building cost is $18 million; YMI made a down payment and financed the rest. A new similar-size building in other areas of East Los Angeles would have cost less.
The building includes 33,000 square feet of space for its executive offices, design room, showroom and a green room outfitted with a bar where young starlets stop by to snag free jeans. There’s also a 75,000-square-foot distribution warehouse where workers inspect the merchandise for defects and then box the product for shipping.
YMI isn’t planning to move anytime soon. Vered said there’s enough room in the company’s new headquarters to grow by about 10 percent annually, adding about five jobs a year for the next several years.
“When I looked at this site, I said, What can represent our company better than this location?” Vered said. “Here we are sitting on all the veins of the traffic of California and with a site overlooking the city of L.A.”
