A 53-acre, fully entitled industrial development site in the Inland Empire city of Eastvale was acquired by Orbis Real Estate Partners and Chase Partners. The property, called The Campus, was sold by Preeminent Investment Corp.
The new owners will be developing a 10-building, 715k sf industrial project valued at more than $100 mil. The project will be built in one phase with construction starting immediately. More than 50 percent of the space is already spoken for by various tenants and users.
CBRE’s Barbara Emmons, Darla Longo, Brett Hartzell, and Michael Kendall, the firm’s National Partners-West Coast Team, represented Investment Corp in the transaction.
Eastvale, located just south of Ontario, sits in California’s Inland Empire where industrial vacancies closed the second quarter at 3.7 percent, a level not reached in the Inland Empire since late 2006 to early 2007, according to CBRE’s second-quarter report. The strong demand for space has kicked up development, which averaged 17.3 msf in the last two years, a significant jump when compared with the average 10.6 msf the eight quarters prior. Construction activity is expected to remain strong throughout 2016 and well into 2017, since many developers are pushing to finish all large developments by the end of 2017, according to CBRE research.
“Demand for new, state-of-the-art product such as the Providence Center is stronger than ever,” said Emmons. “The Inland Empire is a near-perfect strategic location for any user with same-day delivery and similar logistics needs.” Rents in the Inland Empire continued to grow due to rising industrial employment, pent-up demand for industrial space and consumer spending. Year over year, average asking lease rates increased by 23 percent, marking the largest year-over-year growth since the previous peak in 2006 and 2007.
“Already more than half of this new industrial project is spoken for,” said Longo. “It speaks to the tremendous need for space in this area. The Greater Los Angeles region is a great strategic hub due to its proximity to the ports, and it is a great consumer hub. About 50 percent of all goods coming into our local ports stays in the region. That means more product is being stored and sold locally. That bodes well for industrial markets like the Inland Empire.”