Rockefeller Group, a commercial real estate group firm known for developing Rockefeller Center in New York, continues to go big on industrial in Southern California, and is bringing on a local firm to help it do so.
The New York-based company is pairing up with Irvine-based MBK Real Estate LLC for a new industrial project in the Inland Empire; it’s the second joint venture between the two firms.
They acquired a 13.8-acre site in Fontana for $15.7 million, and recently received entitlements to build a 297,161-square-foot industrial facility, bringing Rockefeller’s total construction in the IE to north of 500,000 square feet.
“Rockefeller Group recently completed approximately 2 million square feet of new industrial product in the Inland Empire and continues to pursue industrial development opportunities within the market,” said James Camp, senior vice president and regional development officer for Rockefeller’s West Region.
Camp has a long career in Orange County’s commercial real estate industry, with prior stints at Greenlaw Partners and Voit Development Co., among others. In 2018, he served as president of the SoCal Chapter of NAIOP.
Rockefeller, which has its western U.S. operations based in Irvine, said it will form a joint venture with MBK to develop the Fontana property, which spans 11 separate parcels.
Rockefeller previously partnered with MBK with the construction of Optimus Logistics Center, a 1.5-million-square-foot industrial facility in Perris that wrapped in 2018.
That $120 million project sold out at the start of 2019.
Industrial development is a relatively new business line for MBK, which has five subsidiaries and in 2018 was the county’s No. 20 largest homebuilder.
Bullish on SoCal
Rockefeller has a bullish outlook for industrial development in 2020, noting that absorption rates are slated to “rise as demand for industrial buildings in the region continues at record levels resulting in vacancy rates dropping to all-time lows.”
CBRE Group Inc. notes that industrial vacancy rates in the Inland Empire are 3.1%, with the area’s western submarket reaching a low of 2.1%.
Continued gains in the e-commerce sector will continue to drive user activity in the region, as well as Orange County, with companies looking for distribution facilities that have one-day access to strong population centers.
Leasing of the new building will be handled by Paul Earnhart, Brian Pharris, and Ryan Earnhart of Lee & Associates and Juan Gutierrez of Voit Real Estate Services.
Nasser Mustafa of ASG Development Advisors was the land sales broker for the Fontana deal.
Construction is slated to begin in April, and wrap by the end of the year.
