Omni West Plans 47,000 SF

RIVERSIDE, CA-Omni West, an Irvine-based development and investment firm, plans to develop a four-building industrial complex totaling 47,000 sf on a project site at Garner Road near a three-way freeway interchange. The company expects to begin construction in November, with completion slated for April.The $7.2-million project will be called Omni West Business Center and will feature four buildings consisting of eight units ranging in size from 4,000 sf to 6,000 sf. Each building will be of two-story, concrete tilt-up construction with office and warehouse space, as well as a mezzanine.Omni West is aiming the project at "the increased demand for owner-user small-box units," according to Kip Dubbs, president and CEO of the company.The company is offering the buildings for lease or sale, although it expects more sales than leasing because of the continued from owner-users for small industrial buildings.The listing agent for the project is Art Day of the Ontario office of CB Richard Ellis. Day says that direct vacancy rates remain low in the Inland Empire, dropping below 3% in the fourth quarter of 2005, despite new industrial space construction totaling more than 26 million sf.The Omni West construction site is a 2.5-acre parcel of vacant land that the company bought in October. "It's one of the few small-box projects scheduled to be built in Riverside in 2006," Day says.The Riverside project is the second Inland Empire development announced by Omni West in recent weeks. The other is a two-story 8,454-sf medical office project called Paseo del Sol in Downtown Chino where the Irvine-based firm recently broke ground.