RIVERSIDE, CA-The Amstar Group of Denver and the Orange County-based Kaliber Group have formed a joint venture to develop a $100 million speculative office and industrial project of 750,000 sf on a 54-acre site at the Alessandro Boulevard entrance of the 215 Freeway. The partners expect to begin development within two years on the project, which is tentatively named Alessandro Commerce Centre.

The 750,000 sf will include about 40% of office and the rest industrial space, depending on market demand, the developers say. Putting the development site together required negotiating with multiple owners to assemble four contiguous parcels of land before they came to market, notes Craig Reed, president of the Kaliber Group, which is based in Fullerton.

Reed cites the strategic location of the development site near the March Global Cargo Port and directly adjacent to LNR's Meridian, a 1,200-acre master planned commercial development. According to Gabe Finke, CEO and general partner of the Amstar Group, the project is Amstar's first with Kaliber.

Finke says that the Alessandro project gives the two partners and opportunity to "establish a strategic foothold in one of the fastest growing and most sought-after investment markets in the US." Kaliber is a newly formed investment and development company headed by Reed, who has been involved in the acquisition and development of more than three million sf of commercial product while working for Disney Development Co., Lowe Enterprises, Sares-Regis and an Orange County-based real estate investment fund.

The Alessandro land purchase represents one of the few remaining prime development sites of its size in the Inland Empire East submarket. At the close of 2005, the Inland Empire led all US industrial markets in both net absorption and total space under construction. Recent market reports show the Inland Empire East industrial and Riverside office markets vacancy rates at 3.7% and 8.8%, respectively.