Massive Inland Empire Logistics Hub to Break Ground

Planned industrial project at Southern California Logistics Centre. Rendering courtesy of Stirling Capital Investments

Stirling Development and Prologis are poised to start construction of a massive, build-to-suit industrial facility in the Inland Empire, after signing a lease with a multinational consumer products firm that will occupy the entire project.

Stirling Capital Investments, a joint venture between the two firms, announced it will break ground on the 819,964-square-foot facility in Victorville, Calif., next month. Slated for completion in May 2022, the LEED-designed warehouse and distribution hub is expected to create 100 jobs at Southern California Logistics Centre (SCLC), a sprawling commercial and industrial complex northeast of Los Angeles.

READ ALSO: Will the Inland Empire’s Industrial Boom Continue?

The project will sit on a 42-acre site and will feature energy-efficient design and construction, 40-foot clear height and a smart temperature control system. The developers tapped Fullmer Construction as the general contractor. John McMillan, vice chairman of Newmark, represented the unidentified tenant in the transaction, while Jay Dick, executive vice president of CBRE, represented Stirling.

Hot market

Stirling Capital Investments has so far developed more than 4 million square feet of Class A industrial space at SCLC, a 2,500-acre complex that forms part of the sprawling Global Access Victorville project on the former George Air Force Base. The City of Victorville teamed up with Stirling to redevelop the base into an 8,500-acre multimodal freight transportation center that includes Southern California Logistics Airport and the planned Southern California Rail Complex.

Tenants of the existing developments include Boeing, Keurig Dr Pepper, DHL, FedEx, General Electric and Tesla Corp. The freight hub enjoys air, ground and rail connections, has immediate access to Interstate 15 and US-395 and is less than 100 miles from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Vacancy in the Inland Empire industrial market has reached a historical low of 2.7 percent as of the first quarter, according to a recent report by JLL. The start of the year saw elevated leasing activity, with a 43.9 percent increase in the number of leases signed compared to the first quarter of 2020. However, the total square footage of leases signed dropped by 19.3 percent, given that most of the transactions were smaller than 200,000 square feet.

Absorption remained high during the first three months, as tenant demand outstripped new deliveries for the sixth consecutive quarter, following a year of record leasing activity driven mainly by e-commerce and logistics firms, the brokerage found.