ProLogis Leases 290,000 SF to Oakley

ONTARIO, CA-Oakley Inc., a maker and marketer of sunglasses and other eyewear, has signed a lease for 290,000 sf of distribution space at the Crossroads Business Park, a warehouse and distribution project being developed by Denver-based ProLogis. Oakley's deal is a prelease of the building, which is targeted for completion in the first half of this year.

According to Chris Veit, director of operations for Oakley, the new space will represent an expansion of the company's distribution network, which Southern California-based Oakley has been reconfiguring of late. Veit notes that Oakley "is working with ProLogis to expand our worldwide distribution network."

The ProLogis Crossroads Business Park is under development at the intersection of interstates 10 and 15, near the Ontario International Airport. The park comprises eight buildings totaling 2.4 million sf, and ProLogis has more than 70 acres of land available to develop another three distribution facilities for an additional 1.74 million sf.

The Oakley transaction is the largest in a series of recent deals in the region for ProLogis, which is the largest owner of industrial distribution space in the Inland Empire, with 73 facilities totaling more than 27 million sf either completed or under development. The Denver-based company recently acquired two fully leased buildings totaling 855,000 sf in the Ontario area, for example, and signed a tenant to all 700,000 sf of a warehouse in the City of Redlands.

ProLogis management says that the company remains on the lookout for acquisition and development targets in the Inland Empire market, which ProLogis views as one of the country's premier distribution centers. Even with its existing 27 million sf of space, the company sees ample potential for additional growth in the region, where tenants continue to absorb large amounts of distribution space year after year.