As we begin 2018, the Inland Empire region has 28.5 million square feet of industrial space under construction. It is also home to numerous Fortune 500 companies. Now, Rockefeller Group’s latest industrial projects, the Tri-City Industrial Complex and the Optimus Logistics Center, have recently broken ground in the area. Located in San Bernardino on a 19-acre site, the plans for the Tri-City Complex include two speculative industrial distribution buildings totaling 425,500 square feet. The Optimus Logistics Center, located in Perris on a 68-acre site, also includes two speculative buildings totaling an expansive 1.4 million square feet, or roughly 24 football fields. Both projects, with timelines expected to bring them to completion by the summer of 2018, are already seeing significant interest from brokers and tenants which is driven by the properties’ variations in size and their ability to accommodate users with diverse square footage requirements.
E-Commerce — The New Normal
“In the wake of the explosion of the e-commerce industry, demand for industrial space has skyrocketed, and new construction is ramping up,” said James V. Camp, Senior Vice President & Regional Development Officer. “Developers are being challenged to accommodate demand by designing vertically to house more for big-box development and intermodal shipping.” Also, spaces are being reimagined to fulfill the needs of nontraditional tenants. In response, Rockefeller Group spearheaded these latest projects to complement one another, aiming to equip them to serve the needs of diverse tenants in the era of ever-changing technology. With e-commerce as the new normal, Perris and San Bernardino are prime locations for distribution centers, strategically placed within the nexus of California’s shipping hub.
“Tenants in the market view both San Bernardino and Perris as prime distribution locations for their businesses, specifically companies in the e-commerce segment,” said Marc Berg, Vice President, Regional Director, West Region. “E-commerce is changing the way we shop with consumer demand for online goods at an all-time high and forecasted to increase significantly. Almost everything in the west arrives via trucks to facilities like ours from the Ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach.”
No End in Sight for Industrial Growth
Mike Chukwueke, who serves as Rockefeller Group’s Manager of Development and Financial Analysis and works on both projects, also commented on the impact online retailers are having on the market, saying “I think there’s been a demographic shift. People are using their phones to do everything, myself included. It is becoming the norm for many people to purchase a majority of their items online or from mobile devices, and I feel like this is a trend that has completely changed consumer behavior and how retailers attempt to meet the needs of their customers. This shift is echoed particularly in industrial real estate and is one of the reasons why we are confident in the success of these projects, and why we believe the Inland Empire will remain one of the fastest-growing industrial regions for the foreseeable future.”
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