3 Related Packaging Firms to Consolidate, Leave O.C : Real estate: Larger facilities in La Mirada will put companies closer to L.A. County customers.

Three privately held sister companies, employing a total of 173 workers, said Tuesday that they will consolidate their headquarters and move to larger offices in La Mirada next month to be closer to their Los Angeles County clients.

Conceptual Designs Industries, the lead company in the operations owned by Jeff Berkley, and licensing company Berkley Merchandising will leave their leased base in the Irvine Spectrum. Berkley Packaging Industries will vacate a company-owned building several miles away.

All employees will move with the companies, the owner said.

Conceptual Designs, a package designer and distributor, needs a building with special features and space necessary for high-volume distribution. Berkley Packaging is the manufacturing arm, supplying boxes and other containers to such companies as Western Digital Corp.

“We needed the two companies to be together,” Berkley said. “But we also couldn’t find the high ceilings and space for an economical price in Orange County.”

The La Mirada building is almost twice the size of the two Irvine locations combined, he said. Berkley Packaging’s building will be leased to Bear Communications Inc. in Costa Mesa.

“There just wasn’t a building that economically competed with the features of the La Mirada building,” said Steve Schloemer, a vice president at Seeley Co.’s commercial real estate office in Anaheim. Seeley represented the companies in their search for a consolidated headquarters.

Schloemer said there is a shortage in the region of structures that can handle large inventories and mass distribution. He said Conceptual Designs had tried to find an appropriate complex in Orange County for more than 18 months.

After finding the La Mirada building, the company signed a five-year lease for $3 million. In the next three months, the company expects to hire about 50 new employees, Berkley said.

He said the La Mirada facility will serve as a central location for his companies’ South Bay and downtown Los Angeles clients.

Conceptual Designs has grown rapidly, Berkley said, because it is one of the few companies that both makes packages and distributes products, saving customers added expense. Musical instruments maker Yamaha Corp. of America in Buena Park, for instance, ships stereo speakers to Conceptual Designs, which packages the products and then distributes them directly to retailers.

Berkley said his operations expect combined sales to reach $25 million this year.