The motorcycle and golf cart division of Japanese company Yamaha is planning to move its U.S. headquarters out of Southern California to a collection of buildings in the Atlanta suburbs.
Yamaha Motor will vacate its nearly 279,000-square-foot campus in Cypress, California, in multiple phases through the end of 2028, according to a company statement. Avison Young is advising Yamaha on its search for a buyer, and Yamaha said it wants to sign a sale-leaseback agreement with the new owner that will allow it to occupy the California buildings until they are fully vacated.
The California properties offer potential "investors and developers the ability to control a significant infill site in one of the most historically supply constrained industrial markets in the county," according to a statement from Patrick Barnes, principal at Avison Young.
Yamaha is making "structural reforms aimed at improving the profitability of its U.S. operations in response to cost increases resulting from U.S. tariffs and changes in the market environment," according to the statement.
Various corporate functions will be shifted to Yamaha's properties in Georgia as a result of the California closure.
Yamaha occupies at least eight separate properties in the Atlanta area. The portfolio includes warehouses in Marietta and Kennesaw that it leases from Prologis, a flex building in Kennesaw leased from GIC Real Estate and several manufacturing facilities in Newnan.
Yamaha has not announced the specific departments to be assigned to the various buildings in Georgia. A total of 250 employees in California will be affected, and not all will move to Georgia, according to a company spokesman.
Yamaha has occupied its 25.1-acre campus in Orange County, California, since 1979. The site includes undeveloped land, office buildings and warehouses.
Yamaha Motor makes motorcycles, electric bicycles, golf carts, all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles, boats, outboard motors for watercraft, robotics and power generators.
Yamaha Motor was spun off from Yamaha Corp., a maker of musical instruments and audio equipment, in 1955.
For the record
Avison Young's Barnes, Paul Clark, Nick Slonek and Jae Estep are representing Yamaha Motor on the sale of its Orange County campus.