First Industrial has amassed a portfolio of more than 1,300acres of mainly raw land for some 26 million sf of such futuredevelopment in two of the places in the Inland Empire where expertsagree that the newest and biggest waves of distribution spacedevelopment will occur: Along the Interstate 215 Corridor fromMoreno Valley South to the City of Perris and in the High Desertregion. Phil Bowman, Irvine-based senior vice president with FirstIndustrial, tells GlobeSt.com that the Chicago-based REIT expectsto develop its 26 million sf over the next 10 years or so.

First Industrial already owns about 2.5 million sf in LosAngeles County, where it focuses on primarily on infillrepositioning and redevelopment, and about one million sf ofexisting space in Orange County and the Inland Empire. Bowman, whoalso maintains an office in Riverside where First Industrial'sdevelopment group is located, tells GlobeSt.com that the companyexpects to break ground by the third quarter on a spec project thattypifies the product users are seeking today. It's a 770,000-sfbuilding under one roof called the Nandina Distribution Center II.The development site is at the northwest corner of Indian andNandina.

Bowman explains the primary reasons for First Industrial'sInland Empire strategy:Ontario and the West Inland Empire hasbecome a mature market, and there is not that much land left todevelop a building larger than 400,000 sf or 500,000 sf. The demandlarger buildings like First Industrial's Nandina Center hasincreased in the past few years as the region's population hasrisen, demand for distribution facilities has grown asinternational trade through the local ports has increased, and thereconfiguration of the global supply as corporations and logisticsfirms consolidate into fewer but larger facilities has pushed thedemand for large modern distribution facilities.