A Newport Beach-based real estate and construction firm has purchased 20 acres in Ontario to develop a new $19 million industrial project.
Master Development Corp., which has several other ongoing developments in Orange County, plans to begin work on four Inland Empire complexes totaling 405,000 square feet sometime next month.
The industrial buildings will be part of the Crossroads Business Park, a 280-acre development with more than 2.5 million square feet of space already in use.
“Typically we sell smaller buildings and keep the larger ones for our portfolio as long-term investments,” said Bryan Bentrott, a principal of Master Development. “But we’re going to sell these, even though they’re on the larger side, because we’ve seen a huge pent-up demand for users interested in owning rather than leasing their buildings.”
The Crossroads Collection, which is what Master Development is calling the industrial complexes, is expected to be completed by December.
Unlike other buildings that have been developed in the business park by Catellus Development Corp., which sold Master Development its Ontario land, the Crossroads Collection project will go up on a speculative basis.
“Catellus has been developing build-to-suit projects where they have a tenant lined up before starting,” said Bentrott. “We don’t have any pre-leasing requirements before building.”
Master Development is confident that strong market conditions will translate into heavy leasing activity once marketing begins in earnest.
“Purchasing land at Crossroads Business Park was very advantageous for us,” said Bentrott. “We will be developing within a complex that has already proven itself to be extremely successful.”
Michael Chavez and Bill Heim of Lee & Associates are leasing agents for the four industrial facilities. The project includes:
n A 140,000-square-foot building at Wineville and Concours streets.
n A 103,000-square-foot complex at Concours Street east of Longs Drugs.
n A 98,000-square-foot building at the northwest corner of Concours Street and Barrington Avenue.
n A 63,500-square-foot industrial facility on Barrington Avenue.
In Ontario, Master Development has built more than 2 million square feet of speculative industrial space at its 100-acre Thoroughbred Business Park.
In Orange County, Master Development is finishing Skylab Corporate Center. The Huntington Beach project, at 5921 and 5951 Skylab Road, is projected to be completed by June. The pair of two-story industrial buildings will total 100,000 square feet and are valued at more than $8.5 million.
The company is also expecting to finish a $5 million-plus industrial complex nearby for Dynamic Cooking Systems. Master Development is doing the construction work for the project, a 140,000-square-foot expansion for DCS in Huntington Beach.
“Most of our construction activity is done for our own developments,” said Bentrott. “But we do work on other projects where we know the principals and feel comfortable providing our services to outside firms. That was the case with DCS.” n
