A Next-Door Lease for Minimus

Minimus Products has signed a lease next door to its Newbury Park corporate headquarters, committing to 77,100 square feet at Conejo Spectrum Business Park in Thousand Oaks. Calabasas-based Newmark Knight Frank Senior Managing Director Patrick DuRoss, who with partners John DeGrinis and Jeff Abraham, represented property owner Western States Technology in the deal, told the Business Journal that Minimus was drawn to the deal, included half-rent for the first year on a 10-year lease. “We signed a long-term lease with Minimus Products,” DuRoss said. “They are in the contract packaging and fulfillment business and have operated in multiple buildings in the Thousand Oaks area for many years, including the adjacent property at 2590 Conejo Spectrum St.” Allen Trowbridge of Cresa Partners LLC represented Minimus, which is based at 1260 Ranchero Conejo Road, in the transaction. NKF’s DuRoss said that the client Western States’ “great private ownership group” helped get this transaction done smoothly. “We had a hunch that Minimus would need expansion space and knew that the landlord and tenant would get along,” DuRoss said. “I’ve known their broker and the Shrater family, owners of Minimus, for a long time. They are all great people and great to work with, so Allen and I set up a meeting several months ago for the two groups to meet so that in the event there was a future requirement for the building, there would be some rapport between the parties.” In a phone conversation with the Business Journal, Cresa’s Trowbridge confirmed DuRoss’s statement. “This provided us with a great opportunity to expand right next door to their corporate headquarters,” Trowbridge said. While “the economics were attractive,” the rent deal was not a driver, according to Trowbridge, who said that the company was simply looking for an “expansion of their existing operation of distribution” and having this property in such close proximity to its corporate headquarters was too ideal to pass up. “It was an opportunity that represented itself (and despite the COVID period), the deal came together quickly and smoothly,” Trowbridge said. Another factor that encouraged Minimus in the deal is the momentum of the Thousand Oaks industrial market. “This property is on the same street where nine new industrial buildings were recently built,” DuRoss said.