Fontana Industrial Buildings Fetch $213M

A two-building, 1.5M SF industrial property has traded for $213.5M, one of the biggest deals in recent years.

Long Beach-based Pacific Industrial has sold the Sierra Pacific Center, a Class-A industrial facility at 5565 and 5885 Sierra Ave. in Fontana, to an undisclosed institutional life insurance company.

Pacific Industrial officials said the sale of the industrial center, which it built in 2016, is the largest non-portfolio industrial transaction in California in the past 24 months.

“This is a milestone transaction that represents the remarkable investment potential of spec industrial developments when they are done well,” Pacific Industrial co-founder and partner Dan Floriani said in a news release. 

Floriani said the property sold at a cap rate of 3.68%. The property is leased to LG Electronics and FedEx. 

Cushman & Wakefield's Jeff Chiate represented Pacific Industrial, which acquired the site from Water of Life Community Church in 2014 for a reported $20M, according to commercial real estate data company Reonomy. 

The Class-A industrial property was built in two phases. The buildings feature natural light above the industry standard of 2%, electric vehicle charging stations and concrete truck courts with depths up to 430 feet. 

Chiate said this transaction reflects the popularity of industrial properties in the Inland Empire. He said the Inland Empire West region had the most lease transaction above 500K SF in the nation last year and vacancy rates are 2%.

 “This is a substantial core investment property in the top industrial submarket in the nation,” Chiate said.