Kearny Real Estate Sells Inland Empire Industrial Campus for $325M

1501 Sherborn St. Image courtesy of Colliers

Kearny Real Estate Co. has sold Corona Lakeside Logistics Center, a roughly 730,000-square-foot industrial campus in Corona, Calif., for $325 million. The buyer was GLP Capital Partners, according to Commercial Observer. Colliers arranged the deal that marks the largest ground-lease ownership transfer in Inland Empire’s history.

The transaction was also GLP Capital Partners’ second Riverside County investment in the last six months. In December, the company paid $90 million for a 354,810-square-foot industrial facility in Perris, Calif.

A recently completed industrial campus

Kearny broke ground on Corona Lakeside, one of the largest speculative developments in the Inland Empire, in 2021. CommercialEdge data shows that the developer took out a $59 million construction loan from Wells Fargo Bank for this endeavor.

At the time, the property was already subject to a fixed-rate ground lease; Colliers had structured the deal between the developer and fee-ownership in 2019.

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Completed this year, Corona Lakeside comprises five buildings, ranging between 70,586 and 205,235 square feet, with 32- to 36-foot clear heights and a total of 109 dock-high loading doors. The property also includes ESFR fire sprinklers, 141 trailer parking spaces and 1,180 car parking spaces.

The 39-acre campus is at 1501 Sherborn St., close to the intersection of Interstate 15 and State Route 91 in Riverside County. Corporate neighbors in the surrounding area include US Foods, Amazon, FedEx, Vans and Fleetwood, among others.

The Colliers team which facilitated the deal included Vice Chairmen Michael Kendall and Richard Schwartz, Senior Vice President Gian Bruno, Executive Vice President Joey Reaume and Vice President Kenny Patricia.

The Inland Empire, a leader for industrial sales

Despite a slowdown in transaction activity across the U.S. in the first quarter of 2023, the Inland Empire’s industrial sector recorded $1 billion in transactions as of March, ranking second after the Bay Area, according to the latest CommercialEdge report. One of these deals, which closed in February, involved a 1.8 million-square-foot industrial property in Cherry Valley, Calif.

The same report shows the Inland Empire’s industrial market registered the highest rent growth in the nation on a year-over-year basis: The 16.3 percent hike was more than double the national average of 7.1 percent. The area still had one of the lowest vacancy rates in the nation, at 1.7 percent.

As for industrial development, the market had 27.1 million square feet under construction as of March, accounting for 4.4 percent of stock. One of the area’s major projects is a 6.6 million-square-foot logistics campus to take shape in Fontana, Calif. Last month, Hillwood Investment Properties and CBRE Investment Management paid $559 million for the 364-acre site that will host the development’s first phase.