Despite the pause in some transactions around the US, many investors are still pouncing on industrial assets in the Inland Empire as record-low vacancy and sky-high rents drive competition for deals in the land-constrained region. 

Approximately $1.7 billion in industrial sales have closed in the Inland Empire so far this year, with the average sale price of properties more than doubling over the past two years, according to data from CommercialEdge. The average industrial asset traded for $138 per square foot in 2020, and that number has ticked up to $299 this year.

The most popular submarket in the region is Fontana, where 11 industrial assets have sold for more than $500 million this year. The average sale price was $371 per square foot, $72 higher than the overall average sale price in the region. And the crown jewel of 2022 was the sale of the Alder Commerce Center, a 175,000-square-foot warehouse delivered last year that sold for $83.4 million, at an average of $477 per foot.