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Shopoff Realty Investments plans to move forward with the development of an industrial mega-site in the Inland Empire after a Riverside County Court dismissed an environmental case against the project.
Tied up in court for the past several years after originally being approved in 2017, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Ottolia earlier this month dismissed a case against Shopoff's development of the San Gorgonio Crossing Project, a 1.8M SF warehouse and logistics facility on 140 acres in Cherry Valley.
Two environmental groups, the Sierra Club and Cherry Valley Acres and Neighbors, had filed the lawsuit, challenging the environmental impact report of the project in 2017.
“After receiving project approvals in October 2017, we are pleased to finally be able to move this fantastic project forward, helping to fill a void in this marketplace for large distribution warehouse buildings,” Shopoff Realty Investments President and CEO William Shopoff said in a news release. “As the shift to online retail continues, further strengthened by the recent stay-at-home orders, the need for large scale warehouse buildings will only continue to grow across Southern California in the coming years.”
The judge's case dismissal clears Shopoff's final hurdle to moving forward with the project. Last year, the judge ruled in favor of Shopoff and the project, but required the company to submit a supplemental environmental impact review to address solar and transportation energy concerns, according to local news site Patch.com.
Shopoff officials said they provided those documents and additional technical studies to the county earlier this year. In May, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors approved the project.
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The San Gorgonio Crossing Project will feature two high-cube warehouse buildings, one 800K SF and another a little more than 1M SF, with 306 truck bays. The buildings will be located north of Cherry Valley Boulevard and Roberts Road, according to Riverside County planning documents.
The Sierra Club and neighborhood groups protested the development, saying that the 1,200 daily truck trips coming in and out of the facility will degrade the area's air quality, according to Patch. But Riverside County and Shopoff have said the development could create more than 1,000 jobs and provide $150M in economic benefits.
“With the county’s official approval secured, we believe this project will be very well-positioned to serve as a distribution center for cargo coming out of both the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports," Shopoff Executive Vice President of Development Brian Rupp said in a news release. "The project also has great potential to benefit the surrounding community by creating thousands of jobs, and ultimately stimulating this local economy."
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