Walmart Pays $223M for SoCal Cold-Storage Facility

One of the world’s largest companies has acquired a building in Southern California that it uses for its grocery and food distribution in a deal that’s equal to roughly $440 a square foot.

Walmart Realty, a subsidiary of Walmart, put down $223 million for a 507,000-square-foot cold-storage facility in California’s Inland Empire region. State Street Corporation sold the temperature-controlled distribution property to the retailer.

Walmart has been leasing the development at 1001 Columbia Avenue in Riverside since 2019. It sits less than four miles from Interstate 215, State Route 60 and State Route 91, and it features 42-foot clear height ceilings, 120 trailer stalls, 98 dock-high doors, 22,500 square feet of office space and 565 parking stalls.

JLL’s Scott Coyle, Peter McWilliams and Tim O’Rourke — along with Jomar Benoit, senior manager of Walmart’s industrial real estate — represented Walmart in the acquisition before announcing the deal Thursday. Eastdil Secured represented State Street.

JLL said the Inland Empire is the premier component in Southern California’s grocery supply network, and that demand for temperature-controlled logistics space continues to outpace supply.

“This transaction highlights the irreplaceable nature of existing large-format cold-storage facilities and reinforces the Inland Empire’s role as a key market for Southern California’s food distribution ecosystem,” Cole said in a statement.

McWilliams added that demand in the Inland Empire industrial market is expected to continue from a variety of users, including third-party logistics, retail and e-commerce firms.

“The limited speculative construction pipeline coupled with robust tenant demand should begin to positively impact net absorption, vacancy and availability over the coming quarters,” he added.

Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.