55 Acres in SoCal’s Warehouse-Rich Inland Empire Trades for $78M
Part of a larger property that entitled for a 1.3 million square feet of industrial development in Ontario Ranch
By Greg Cornfield March 22, 2024 5:15 pm
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Investors in Southern California’s industrial real estate market have put down $78 million in exchange for 54.5 acres of land in the Inland Empire from a dairy company.
Sares Regis Group paid $1.43 million per acre for the property along Edison Avenue in Ontario, Calif., according to data provided by Vizzda. It’s part of a 147-acre property that is entitled for 1.3 million square feet of industrial development within Ontario Ranch, itself a massive master-planned region spanning more than 8,000 acres.
The land was acquired from a dairy farming company named GH Dairy, managed by Gerben Hettinga. Sares Regis Group did not immediately respond to requests for more information.
In July 2022, a fund managed by JPMorgan Asset Management put down $325 million for the construction of 1.3 million square feet of logistics space in 12 buildings over 147 acres in Ontario Ranch in a joint venture with Sares Regis Group and Orbis Real Estate Partners, according to media reports and company filing from JPMorgan from the time. The status of the project is unclear.
Ontario Ranch is already home to major distributors, logistics firms and industrial tenants, including Home Depot, which leases a 1.1 million-square-foot structure, and industrial supply company Uline, which uses a 1.25-million-square-foot property.
The Inland Empire has for years maintained its status as the top industrial market in the nation, but unprecedented levels of construction threaten that status. Vacancy could rise given a startling 14.8 million square feet of warehouse space was added to the Inland Empire just in the fourth quarter of 2023, the largest quarterly delivery in history. Approximately 29 million square feet of additional space is underway.
Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.
