Mary Kay Signs Deal for Center in Cypress : Relocation: The cosmetics company plans to move its distribution facility out of Costa Mesa to a new building.

Mary Kay Cosmetics’ salespeople will soon be parking their pink Cadillacs at a new location.

The nation’s second-largest direct-sales cosmetics company behind Avon Products has signed a deal to move into a 75,000-square-foot building slated for construction in Cypress, a company official said Tuesday.

The company, founded by Mary Kay Ash with $5,000 in 1963, is noted for giving away diamond bumblebee jewelry and pink Cadillacs to its top salespeople.

If all goes as planned, the company will move its Western regional distribution center from Costa Mesa late next year and relocate the 80 corporate employees who work there. The company’s lease on its current site, a 50,000-square-foot building on Hyland Avenue, expires in January, 1995.

“This will bring not only new jobs but new construction to our city,” said Christine Eynon, planning director for Cypress.

The Cypress City Council will vote Dec. 13 on whether to approve the new building, which would be constructed on vacant land at the corner of Katella Avenue and Hope Street. There is currently no opposition to the project, Eynon said.

Tom Chowning, Mary Kay’s vice president of distribution, said: “We looked at a lot of different areas. The Cypress site was within range for our employees to drive to.”

Mary Kay has signed a lease agreement with Cypress Land Co., a developer based in Carson. “We liked the building plan they presented,” Chowning said.

Cypress Land, which will own the new building, was not available for comment Tuesday.

Chowning said officials from the cities of Fountain Valley and Santa Ana had wooed Mary Kay. But Costa Mesa city officials said in October they didn’t know the cosmetics company was planning to move its sales staff to another location. After city officials found out, they did contact Mary Kay.

“We tried hard. I personally called them because we wanted Mary Kay to stay. We did everything we could to get them to stay,” said Don Lamm, assistant deputy city manager for Costa Mesa. “They couldn’t find a building here the size they wanted. They got a better deal there.”

Mary Kay, which had $610 million in sales last year, opened its first California distribution center in 1971 in Cerritos, then relocated to Fountain Valley several years later. The company moved to its current location in 1986.