Music products huge Sweetwater opens warehouse in West Valley

Music products huge Sweetwater opens warehouse in West Valley

A man holding up a small portable microphone in a warehouse.

Robert Gerwig retains a moveable microphone at Sweetwater’s new warehouse. Picture: Jessica Boehm/Axios

Sweetwater, the country’s major on the internet retailer of audio instruments and professional audio devices, selected Glendale for its 1st important distribution heart outside the house its Fort Wayne, Indiana, headquarters.

State of participate in: The business commenced leasing 350,000 square feet of warehouse place along Loop 303 this summer months and delivered its initial package deal from the facility earlier this month.

Why it matters: Sweetwater joins Amazon, Walmart, REI, Chewy and dozens of other e-commerce functions that have launched distribution facilities alongside the West Valley freeway.

  • In the 1st 50 percent of the calendar year, corporations leased 16 million sq. toes of industrial space in metro Phoenix, earning the metro the third busiest for new logistics activity, driving Chicago and Dallas-Fort Really worth, in accordance to actual estate researcher CBRE Team.

Driving the information: As the warehouse facilities close to the Los Angeles and Lengthy Beach front, California, ports fill up and become extra pricey, corporations are looking for other close by selections and the West Valley is rapidly turning into an desirable hub.

What they’re thinking: Robert Gerwig, Sweetwater’s senior VP of distribution and logistics, tells us that metro Phoenix rose to the top of the record right after leadership decided the business required a West Coast existence.

  • Sweetwater also thought of the Los Angeles location, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and Reno, Nevada, but eventually picked the Loop 303 corridor for the reason that of its proximity to UPS and FedEx distribution facilities, labor availability and small business-helpful weather.

Facts: The warehouse is gradually receiving up to speed and will access comprehensive capacity of satisfying 3,600 buyer orders for each day by April.

  • The distribution center will get started with about 200 people today working a one shift 5 times for each week but will most likely grow to a few shifts 7 days a week, Gerwig states.
  • At minimum 25% of Sweetwater’s orders are anticipated to ship from Glendale.

What they’re stating: “The strategy of coming to the West Coastline and exclusively Phoenix is to decrease the time it will take to get to the client,” Gerwig suggests.

  • He says big tools, such as drum sets and keyboards, is transported by ground, which can choose 4 days or far more to get there from the Indiana warehouse to clients in Phoenix or Southern California.
  • Now it will acquire a person or two days.

???? 1 entertaining matter: Leaning into the firm’s musical history, the distribution center has a little phase exactly where the business plans to host performances by workforce.

Really worth your time: The Wall Street Journal published a limited movie past week that visualizes the speedy development of warehouses in the West Valley.

What is upcoming: So much, all of the developments along Loop 303 have been warehouse and logistics.