NEWPORT BEACH, CA-Duke Realty of Indianapolis has expanded into Southern California in pursuit of development opportunities and has named 30-year industry veteran Steve Palmer to head the firm's new Orange County office, which is at 5000 Birch St. Duke will be looking for strategic investments in Southern California with a focus on industrial distribution, suburban office, healthcare office and retail development opportunities.
Duke has tapped Palmer for his experience in speculative and build-to-suit industrial, office, and retail projects throughout California, Texas and Colorado. He will be responsible for land acquisitions, entitlements, design, development, leasing, sales and other day-to-day activities.
Duke's initial focus will be to invest in industrial opportunities in the Inland Empire, which is part of the company's overall national strategy focusing on investment in port development in response to rapidly growing global logistics markets, according to Kevin Rogus, executive vice president of Duke's western region. For example, Duke's investments in national and inland ports include a 5.1-million-sf industrial portfolio near the Port of Savannah, GA and a 184-acre project called Chesapeake Commerce Center where Duke is investing $140 million along the Port of Baltimore on land that can accommodate up to 2.8 million sf of new distribution and office space.
The Inland Empire is one of a number of regions nationally and internationally that have caught the attention of investment and development firms like Duke as global trade and freight flows change, Rogus notes. He points out that supply chain managers "are becoming more focused on which ports and inland hubs that will become the major gateways for commerce in the future."
Further evidence of this trend appeared in the Inland Empire recently when AMB Property Corp. acquired 400 acres in the community of Adelanto that can accommodate up to seven million sf of industrial development at a project called AMB Adelanto Gateway Logistics Center. The new AMB acreage is in the High Desert region of Southern California, one of the areas where market watchers have been saying that logistics centers will go as other parts of the Inland Empire run out of land for new development.
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