Inland Empire - Commercial Real Estate

The Inland Empire Region is one of the most dynamic and fastest growing areas in the United States.  This page will give you an overview of the region and insights into the commercial real estate market dynamics in this rapidly expanding area of Southern California.

The University of California Riverside, School of Business Center for Economic Forecasting and Development presented its 2020 annual Economic Outlook Forecast for 2021.  The forecast report in summary outlined that  the COVID-19 induced recession is now behind us and the economy is rebounding but  the road to recovery is not exactly clear due to the variabilities with the virus, but the good news is the damage to the economy appears to be situational and not permanent in nature. 

In terms of business and commercial real estate sectors the report pointed out that  “Business hotels, restaurants, airlines, and leisure and recreation firms will all lag the recovery for obvious reasons.  Retail is far and away the biggest flashpoint. That sector has been struggling with oversupply even as the internet continues to wrestle market share away from traditional brick and mortar stores. The non-store share of retail sales went from 14.7% in January to 17.4% in July, and it’s unlikely to give much of that back. ”    These depressed sectors do not represent an amount greater than 5% total GDP and there has been compensating spending that may offset that weakness. 

Industrial, Single Family Housing and Multi Unit Housing appear to be relatively unaffected and in fact appear to be beneficiaries of the current crisis.

The Inland Empire represent an area of over 27,000 square miles and for years has been very attractive to both commercial developers and individuals because the land is inexpensive and the housing prices are low compared to adjacent Los Angeles County and Orange County markets.   With the expansion of e-commerce, now greatly enhanced by COVID-19 restrictions, and the current “work at home environment” these factors have helped drive the demand for homes and Industrial Warehouse space in the Inland Empire.  

The Inland Empire has an extremely favorable outlook from most research sources you choose to review in terms of Top Industrial markets.  Inland has been in the Top 5 for new Industrial construction and deliveries for several years and this construction activity also makes up a large part of the economic drivers (the construction industry) in Southern California.