The center, which is undergoing
construction, will be LEED-certified
with 108 dock-high loading doors
and two yard areas at 185 feet.

(Save the date: RealShare Industrial 2012 comes to The Banker's Club, Miami, December 5 - 6.)

REDLANDS, CA-Demonstrating continued growth by logistics companies in the Inland Empire, Watson Land Co. has leased 553,963 square feet of industrial property to M. Block & Sons, a provider of end-to-end supply-chain solutions for the retail market, at the Watson Commerce Center here. Currently under construction, the center is located at 26597 San Bernardino Ave. and will be used for the warehousing, distribution and logistics of third-party goods.

The facility is strategically located in San Bernardino County, close to the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports and major population centers of Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. It will be LEED-certified with 108 dock-high loading doors and two yard areas at 185 feet.

The building is part of Watson’s Legacy Building Series, which is an initiative to develop and offer highly flexible, class-A industrial facilities with distinctive architectural detail. Such buildings are designed to offer maximum efficiency and flexibility for both distribution and manufacturing operations.

Watson will be working with RGA Architects of Irvine, CA, and Millie and Severson General Contractors of Los Alamitos, CA, to finalize the design and construction of the center, which is expected to be completed this month.

Frank Griffin, Peter McWilliams and Jordan Quinn from Jones Lang LaSalle represented the tenant in the lease transaction, while Watson was represented by Tom Taylor, Steve Bellitti and Summer Coulter of Colliers International.

As GlobeSt.com reported last month, according to a recent industrial report from Jones Lang LaSalle for the Inland Empire, the outlook is continuing to improve as larger tenants are posting a 65% gain quarter-over-quarter in leasing activity. EVP Tim O’Rourke said at the time that Inland Empire market vacancy rates dropped by 20 basis points quarter-over-quarter. “Despite rumors of a slowdown in activity, tenants over 100,000 square feet posted a 65% gain quarter-over-quarter in leasing activity,” he explained. “Unfortunately absorption gains were not as strong, as roughly 50% of these deals were lease renewals.”