Jim Brooks, president of Ontario-based Empire Commercial, says the company expects to break ground on the development--which will be near the Main Street exit of the Interstate 15 Freeway--in the third quarter. Each building will feature 20,000 sf of space, with freeway visibility, parking, common areas and landscaping.

Brooks says the growth in demand for commercial space in Hesperia is part of a pattern of growth in the Inland Empire commercial markets, thanks to the areas surge in population growth and its stock of affordable housing. The Inland Empire office market remains one of the strongest in the nation, according to reports from Grubb & Ellis and other firms that track commercial statistics. The Grubb & Ellis report on the Inland Empire for the fourth quarter of 2003, for example, cited the region's positive absorption, competitive rental rates compared to other Southern California markets and continued demand for high-end class A product. The vacancy rate tightened to 9.1% from 13.1% in 2002, and the amount of speculative space under construction soared to 902,017 sf, nearly three times the amount one year previously.

Besides its pending new office project, Empire Commercial has developed a number of other office, retail, self-storage and multifamily projects in the Inland Empire. These include its Village at Eagle Glen retail center in Corona, along with other neighborhood shopping centers including Lakeside Plaza and Lakeside Terrace in Moreno Valley, Sierra Crossroads in South Fontana, and a yet-to-be-named retail center in North Fontana. The company has also opened its first luxury apartment community, Barrington Place in Rancho Cucamonga, a 420-unit, $50-million project, and recently broke ground on its second such community, Lasselle Place, a 304-unit upscale apartment project in Moreno Valley. Empires portfolio has now grown from 600,000 sf at the time of its launch in January 2002 to nearly two million sf today.