Catellus announced the lease Tuesday, but the San Francisco-based real estate investment trust didn't name the tenant or provide other details of the transaction, and brokers from Lee & Associates, which has the listing on the property, would not comment on the deal. Inland Empire real estate sources, however, say the tenant is believed to be Wal-Mart and the lease was likely "north of $20 million." They say the transaction was brokered by Michael Chavez and Bill Heim in the Ontario office of Lee & Associates, the listing agents for the Kaiser Commerce Center, with Joe McKay of Lee's Ontario office representing the tenant.

The tenant will move into a new building that is scheduled for completion in June, according to Catellus, which has developed the Kaiser Commerce Center at the site of the former Kaiser Steel complex. Catellus, which began operating as a publicly held real estate investment trust on Jan. 1, acquired the site in 2000 and has developed approximately 4.5 million sf of distribution warehouse space, with entitlements for more than 500,000 sf of additional space. Existing tenants at the Kaiser Commerce Center include cereal maker Kellogg USA Inc., Sports Authority, logistics firm Exel, and others.

The Kaiser center is part approximately 9.2 million sf of fully leased industrial property that Catellus owns and operates in the Inland Empire. Catellus owns and operates approximately 38.2 million sf of predominately industrial property in many of the country's major distribution centers and transportation corridors.