Alere Property to Expand Inland Empire Footprint

13592 Slover Ave. Image courtesy of Alere Property Group LLC

Alere Property Group LLC will soon expand its footprint in Southern California’s high-demand Inland Empire, having just acquired the land for a new 350,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution project. The industrial real estate company purchased just over 17 acres in Fontana, Calif., from CP Fontana, an entity of Clark Pacific, in a deal valued at approximately $38.9 million.

NAI Capital Commercial‘s Richard Lee, Nicholas Chang, Justin Kuehn and Sione Fua represented both Alere and the seller of the two parcels of land. Located at 13592 Slover Ave., just off Interstate 10 in the Inland Empire West submarket, the site is already zoned for industrial development.

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The two-building speculative development, referred to as Fontana Corporate Center in documents submitted to the City of Fontana Planning Department, will consist of an approximately 209,400-square-foot facility and a 143,000-square-foot warehouse. Both buildings will include 5,000 square feet of office space each. Alere expects to commence construction of the Fontana project in 2024.

Weathering the storm

Inflationary fears are rearing their ugly head across the commercial real estate market, and the long-thriving industrial real estate sector is no exception. However, the Inland Empire has remained above the fray as one of the most expensive industrial markets in the U.S., and certainly one of the tightest.

“While the economic outlook is uncertain, the scope and relevancy of the Inland Empire has shielded the industrial market from many of the major pitfalls other markets are facing,” according to a fourth quarter 2022 report by CBRE. The numbers tell the story; the region’s industrial vacancy rate remained low at the close of 2022, landing at just 1.1 percent.

Headwinds continue, but the forecast for the Inland Empire market remains bright, even in the face of high levels of new development. All signs indicate that Alere’s project is likely to be well received.