By Jon Peterson
Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Company has acquired a 1.1 million square foot industrial property located at 1110 West Merrill Avenue in Rialto, Calif. The purchase price was $123.3 million or $122 per square foot, according to published reports. The property was previously owned by Square Mile Capital Management, according to a marketing flyer for the asset.
The asset is known as the Rialto I-10 Logistics Center. In the past, the property had been operated as a distribution warehouse for Toys R Us to move and distribute its products around California. The retailer filed for bankruptcy in 2017.
The Inland Empire property is located in the East Inland Empire submarket. The region is known as an extremely tight market with very little space for tenants to move into for industrial properties. According to data compiled by Newmark for the third quarter of this year, the total vacant space in the region is 0.9 percent.
There is a tremendous amount of new industrial space under construction in the market. This now totals 13.9 million square feet in a market that has total inventory of 248.6 million square feet. Additionally, during the third quarter, there was a total of 3.8 million square feet of net absorption with a year-to-date absorption of 11.9 million square feet.
The overall Inland Empire industrial market remains diverse across main industry segments. The most active businesses are e-commerce, 3PLs and transportation-related companies.
