Inland Empire Leads Nation in Industrial Leasing

The Inland Empire is leading the nation in large industrial leases. According to a new report from CBRE, the Inland Empire had 21 of the top 100 industrial deals in the US last year, a total of 21 deals and 17.5 million square feet. The closest market was Pennsylvania’s I-78 corridor with 13 deals totaling 10 million square feet.

“The ports are the biggest driver of our growth. We did 16 million TEUs last year through the ports, and historically, we have done 14 million TEUs,” Daniel De La Paz, EVP at CBRE, tells GlobeSt.com. “The ports of New Jersey and New York, which are the second largest ports in the US, the volume is half of what our ports do. That is largely because of the Asian trade volumes. As a result, a lot of those goods get put in the Inland Empire.”

In addition to activity from the ports and ecommerce, industrial users are also consolidating business under one roof, driving the need for larger facilities. “That is something that is different this cycle. In the last cycle, one building would be dedicated to importing and another building would be packaging work and another building would be dedicated to regional distribution,” says De La Paz. “These bigger deals are now a combination of multiple business units. Another sign of that trend is the employment base is totally different today than it ever has been.”