Brea Wins for Ideal Access to the Port

BREA, CA—Brea offers great access to a dense population as well as the L.A./Long Beach Port Complex. These attributes make it ideal for industrial development, Cushman & Wakefield's executive director Rick Ellison tells GlobeSt.com.

As we reported last week, Clarion Partners and Pacific Industrial have partnered on the acquisition of 17.66 acres here to develop a 367,194-square-foot, class-A logistics and distribution facility. Located at 1225 W. Imperial Hwy., Imperial Distribution Center will feature 36-foot minimum clearance, 55 dock high doors, 100%-concrete truck court, 3% skylight coverage and 4,976 square feet of high image, two-story office space.

“Industrial development is in high demand throughout Southern California because of the region's large industrial base, its large population base and the proximity to the largest port complex in the US,” Ellison, who was the leasing broker for the deal, tells us. “The challenge is finding well-located land with the appropriate entitlement for industrial development.”

Ellison says Brea is part of the North Orange county industrial market, the highest-performing market in Orange County. Brea is leading the county in lease activity—3. 9 million square feet in 2014—and posts the lowest vacancy rate at 3.4%.

So what makes this market so compelling for the development of industrial product? “The short answer is that the demand outweighs the supply, but other factors include underwriting that makes sense, historic low vacancy and rising values and rents,” says Ellison.

When asked about users targeted for this project, he says that companies distributing to the local population base are the most active users in the market today. “Orange County is a population-dense market, and Brea provides excellent access to this population base and the L.A./Long Beach Port Complex.”