Union Bank Pays $54M for 500,000 Square Feet of Dirt in SoCal’s Inland Empire
By Greg Cornfield February 1, 2023 4:45 pm
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Industrial real estate in Southern California’s Inland Empire is off the charts, with warehouses trading hands multiple times a year, and at incredible premiums. Now, Union Bank has agreed to put down a big chunk of money for an empty plot of land in one of the hottest submarkets.
An entity tied to the bank acquired 12.5 acres adjacent to Riverside Municipal Airport for $53.5 million, or nearly $4.3 million per acre. Orange County-based Orbis Real Estate Partners sold the property
The deal closed Jan. 24, according to data provider Vizzda. It is unclear if it includes entitlements for future development. Union Bank did not return requests for comment. Orbis Real Estate declined to comment.
The property is at 6639 Hillside Avenue at the southwestern intersection with Central Avenue in Riverside. It’s about 11 miles west of a 361,346-square-foot development that BentallGreenOak acquired last month for $120 million, two years after it traded for $44.4 million. In September, CGU Capital Group paid $52.1 million for a 74,140-square-foot warehouse, also in Riverside, that last traded for $5.7 million in 2013.
The Inland Empire ended 2022 with $5 billion in industrial investment sales, according to a recent report from CommercialEdge. Average warehouse asking rents reached $8.05 per square foot by the end of December. That’s 14.2 percent higher than a year ago, the sharpest increase in the nation.
Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.
