Dickies moved to 500 Taylor Street just last year after signing an 84,000-square-foot lease, and said at the time that it was planning a $2.5 million renovation of the space. But plans have clearly changed since then, with the company’s move to the West Coast set for May of 2025. It wasn’t immediately clear how big its new headquarters space in Costa Mesa will be in terms of square footage, or if Dickies will keep the Fort Worth space. 

“This move allows VF to further consolidate its U.S. real estate portfolio as part of its stated business turnaround strategy,” a Dickies spokesperson told Commercial Observer via email. The spokesperson added that the company will maintain a “strong employment presence” in the Dallas-Fort Worth region.

Revenue for Dickies was down 11 percent this past quarter compared to the same period last year, according to VFC’s latest earnings report. Bracken Darrell, VFC’s president and CEO, told investors during the call that Dickies is currently undergoing a “stabilization period,” but that “getting it back to growth is a different story.”

Since 1922, Dickies has produced and sold a line of affordable sturdy jeans, overalls, shirts and jackets that are commonly seen on construction sites. Dickies also produces scrubs and other clothes for health care workers, as well as a line of children’s clothing.

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.

The 292,000-square-foot property is at 3303 Hyland Avenue along Interstate 405 in Costa Mesa. It’s 97 percent leased with roughly 60 home-decor and fashion tenants, including Coco Republic, Design Within Reach and Natuzzi Italia. 

SoCo is also home to The OC Mix, a 15,000-square-foot dining and shopping space with more than 20 restaurants, coffee shops and quick-service eateries. 

“South Coast Collection is the only shopping venue of its kind in an extensive, high-net-worth trade area,” said Josh Dinstein, Continental Realty’s senior vice president of acquisitions. “The OC Mix, a highly successful food and dining concept serves dual purposes as an amenity and a high-volume traffic driver on its own. The asset’s institutional quality and strong value-add potential, plus its location in the heart of Orange County, make SoCo the perfect acquisition for our entry into the Southern California marketplace.”

Built in 2007 on 20 acres, the property is adjacent to the Vans headquarters and is near the corporate campus of defense contractor Anduril Industries.

Continental Realty financed the purchase through the Continental Realty Opportunistic Retail Fund 1 (CRORF), a closed-end fund for which $261 million has been raised since 2021. SoCo is the second property asset that Continental Realty purchased on behalf of CRORF this year, following its $78 million acquisition of Lakeside Village, a 460,000-square-foot shopping center in the Lakeland suburb of Tampa, Fla.

“Consumers have returned to traditional brick-and-mortar retail stores and restaurants as the growth of e-commerce has subsided and, by leveraging our extensive relationships and relentless market analysis, we are continuing to pursue additional shopping center opportunities on a national level,”  Continental Realty CEO J.M. Schapiro said.

Continental Realty’s purchase of SoCo is only the eighth single-asset retail transaction in the U.S. worth more than $100 million this year, according to commercial real estate analysis firm Green Street Advisors. In comparison, 33 such transactions closed last year. 

Nick Trombola can be reached at NTrombola@commercialobserver.com.