EQT Exeter Pays $197M for Inland Empire Asset

Manulife Investment Management sold the warehouse after more than 10 years of ownership.

The facility at 13423-13473 Santa Ana Ave. in Fontana, Calif.
Commerce Way Distribution Center features 30-foot clear heights, four drive-in doors and 128 dock loading doors. Image courtesy of JLL

EQT Exeter has paid $197 million for Commerce Way Distribution Center, an 819,004-square-foot industrial facility in Fontana, Calif., an Inland Empire submarket. Manulife Investment Management sold the asset, while JLL represented the seller and procured the buyer.

The property previously traded in 2011 for $55 million, when Manulife acquired it from American Realty Advisors, according to CommercialEdge information.

Completed in 2000, the cross-dock warehouse features 30-foot clear heights, 128 dock-high loading doors and four drive-in doors. Additionally, the property has more than 320 parking spaces.


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The facility is at 13423-13473 Santa Ana Ave., close to interstates 10 and 15 and less than 5 miles from Ontario International Airport. SBD International Airport is some 18 miles away, while downtown Los Angeles is 45 miles west.

The building is also some 5 miles from Speedway Commerce Center, a 6.6 million-square-foot project planned by a CBRE Investment Management fund and Hillwood Investment Properties that recently received a $756 million financing package.

Three separate JLL teams worked on the deal, comprising Senior Managing Directors Patrick Nally, Brian Torp, Mark Detmer and Ruben Goodsell, Executive Managing Directors Mike McCrary and Kevin Mackenzie, Senior Director Evan Moran and Directors Makenna Peter and Samuel Godfrey.

EQT Exeter’s industrial expansion across the U.S.

EQT Exeter’s industrial portfolio comprises 579 properties across the country, totaling almost 155 million square feet, CommercialEdge information shows. Last month, a REIT managed by EQT acquired a 449,642-square-foot manufacturing facility in Georgetown, Texas.

In August, the company purchased Southeast Gateway, a 1.2 million-square-foot business park in Savannah, Ga. Conor Commercial Real Estate sold the two-building asset for $120.4 million.

Inland Empire’s industrial sector remains steady

The transaction volume in the Inland Empire during the first two months of the year stood at $143 million, according to the latest CommercialEdge industrial report. On average, properties traded for $170 per square foot, considerably higher than the $132 national average.

In February, a joint venture of Stockbridge Capital Group and Dedeaux Properties sold a 1 million-square-foot portfolio of industrial outdoor storage properties. The warehouses are located around Southern California’s cities of San Bernardino and Rialto.

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