Kim Snyder (left); Megan Creecy-Herman (top right) and Kevin Apel.
Kim Snyder, Megan Creecy-Herman and Kevin Apel
Executive director; president of the West region; senior vice president and Inland Empire market officer at Prologis
This one’s a no-brainer: Prologis is the nation’s largest owner of industrial real estate, and much of that is in Southern California.
Just in the Inland Empire alone — the area that falls specifically under the purview of Kevin Apel, a Prologis senior vice president since 2015 — the San Francisco-based real estate investment trust owns 208 properties servicing approximately 230 companies in a portfolio totaling 78 million square feet. According to the company, another 1.5 million square feet was under construction as of the third quarter of 2024, and some 3 million feet beyond that might soon join the portfolio.
Zoom out to Prologis’ entire Western footprint, which Megan Creecy-Herman has managed since October 2023, and you’re talking more than 1,400 properties. That includes 325 properties totaling more than 40 million square feet in Los Angeles and Orange counties, according to a recent company count. The company plans another 1.8 million feet. Creecy-Herman took over the role from Kim Snyder, who now focuses on Prologis’ investments in energy.
Yes, like elsewhere, the industrial market in Southern California is slowing. The company admitted as much in its second-quarter earnings call, noting that Southern California’s slowdown was dragging more than any other region on Prologis’ overall effective market rents.
However, the sheer scope of Prologis’ industrial footprint in Southern California — and the fact that it’s more than 90 percent leased still — makes it a perennial player in the region’s commercial real estate. And there are the deals to remind the market of that prominence, including toward the end of 2023. That’s when Prologis paid $50 million to acquire a 240,000-square-foot facility in Commerce, Calif., with approved plans to expand.
“Anytime you’re descending from those historic highs it can be uncomfortable, so to speak,” Creecy-Herman told Commercial Observer in a March interview. “But, when you’ve got an owner like us who’s been in the business for over 40 years and is very diversified geographically, we can see data patterns, things and trends that others don’t.”
