SoCal Developer Plans Water Park to Warehouse Conversion in Inland Empire
L.A.-based firm paid $45 million for the 17-acre site
By Greg Cornfield June 7, 2023 4:00 pm
reprints
A development and investment firm plans to pave over a water park and put up a distribution facility in Southern California’s Inland Empire
North Palisade Partners announced Tuesday that it acquired the nearly 17-acre site of the defunct Splash Kingdom for $44.5 million, with plans to transform it into a Class A industrial warehouse. The property at 1101 California Street in Redlands, Calif., is in the eastern part of the Inland Empire, which had an industrial vacancy rate of 1.7 percent at the end of the first quarter this year.
“Demand for larger blocks of functional industrial space across Southern California remains strong and competition for sites in the Inland Empire is fierce,” said Joe Mishurda, founder and managing partner of Los Angeles-based North Palisade Partners. “We plan to redevelop the former Splash Kingdom water park that was vacated five years ago into a warehouse distribution building to meet demand from a variety of users.”
Average industrial rent has increased 18.2 percent year-over-year in the Inland Empire, according to CommercialEdge’s most recent market report. The region saw $1.66 billion in industrial real estate sales in the first four months of the year, the most in the country.
“Headline doom and gloom for all commercial real estate is the prevalent theme today, which is causing dislocations in value in well-performing sectors such as logistics,” Mishurda added. “Additionally, severe illiquidity in construction lending will reduce deliveries in 2024-2025 [and beyond], further impacting the long-term supply demand imbalance. North Palisade will remain active in this part of the cycle.”
North Palisade Partners focuses on industrial, outdoor storage and self-storage properties, and has added 12 such assets to its portfolio for approximately $410 million over the past 18 months. Additionally, the firm said it has nearly $315 million of projects under contract in California and Nevada.
Hunter Warner of Lee & Associates represented the buyer and unnamed seller in the transaction. Property records show the water park site was owned by an LP named The California Gateway.
Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.
