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SAN BERNARDINO, CA-McShane Corp. of Chicago plans to break ground this winter on a 250,000-sf speculative industrial development on a 13.5-acre site at University Business Park. The project will be a development of McShane and MetLife's McShane/MetLife Alliance, which has formed a $50-million equity joint venture.

The McShane/MetLife Alliance acquired the development site in September. Stephen Hess, VP of McShane Corp.'s western regional office, describes the site as "one of the last in-fill, rail-served sites remaining in San Bernardino." The project, on Shenandoah Way in the business park, is expected to be ready for occupancy in the summer of 2006.

McShane chose the University Business Park site after looking at industrial submarkets throughout the Inland Empire, Hess says. He says the developers liked the proximity to the 215 Freeway, which provides access to the Greater Los Angeles Basin.

The 250,000 sf will be designed with the flexibility of being configured for a single tenant or as a multi-tenant facility, including flexible features that will be suitable both for manufacturing and for distribution users. The building will feature a 30' clear height, 50' by 52' bay sizes, and 60' concrete truck aprons.

The Phoenix office of McShane Construction Corp. will provide design/build construction services for the development, with RKZ Inc. as project architect. Guaranty Bank will provide the financing. Listing agents for the project are Roger Rhoades, Jeff White and Mike Arens of Grubb & Ellis.

The project arrives at a time when the vacancy rate in the Inland Empire industrial market continues to decline, according to Grubb & Ellis. The company's latest statistics show that the Inland Empire industrial vacancy rate dropped to 2.7% in the second quarter of this year, down from 3.6% in the first quarter of this year and down from 5.6% in the second quarter a year ago.

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