Tejon Ranch: 12M SF Magnet for SoCal Distribution Centers

About an hour north of downtown Los Angeles stands a sprawling, 1,450-acre master-planned development that has become a magnet for single-tenant distribution centers for industry leaders with facilities as large as 2M SF.

The Tejon Ranch Commerce Center (TRCC) is spread out in an unincorporated area of Kern County at the junction of Interstate 5 and Highway 99. TRCC is populated with large single-tenant distribution centers for retailers including IKEA, Camping World, Caterpillar, Dollar General, Famous Footwear and L’Oreal.

This roster soon will be joined by Sunrise Brands, an apparel maker that has pre-leased a 446K SF distribution center that is scheduled to open in early 2024.

Sunrise is the latest fashion brand to join a parade of apparel makers who have flocked to Southern California and pre-leased large build-to-suit distribution centers, including a cluster in the Inland Empire.

In a region without much, if any, surplus industrial space, TRCC—a joint development of Tejon Ranch Company and Majestic Realty—has an additional 12M SF of entitled space available for lease or sale, as well as a large inventory of existing buildings ranging from 20K SF to more than 2M SF.

Sunrise will occupy one of them, encompassing 240K SF, until its new 446K facility is completed. The transaction with TRCC was brokered by JLL, with Savills’ representing Sunrise.

“The pro-business approach of Kern County government, coupled with our substantial inventory of already entitled industrial space, gives us the ability to be flexible—and to move quickly, as we’ve been able to do with Sunrise,” Derek Abbott, a Tejon Ranch Co. VP of real estate, said in a statement.

Central Riverside County in SoCal’s Inland Empire—which spans San Bernardino, which is adjacent to Kern, and Riverside counties—continues to be the epicenter of a growing logistics hub for the apparel industry.

Fast-fashion retailer Shein in September disclosed plans to occupy a mega-warehouse in the region. The City of Industry-based company, owned by a Nanjing tech firm, is pre-leasing space at a 1.8M SF distribution center under construction Cherry Valley.

The campus, developed by a joint venture of Shopoff Realty Investments and Artemis Real Estate Partners, includes two buildings, a 1M SF warehouse and an 811K SF industrial building.

In July, a joint venture of Trammell Crow and Clarion announced that two warehouses encompassing 1.1M SF under construction in the JV’s sprawling Knox Logistics Center have each been fully pre-leased to single tenants.

Apparel retailer Burlington Stores has signed a 410K SF lease to occupy all of Knox IV, while an identified logistics services provider has inked a deal to lease all of Knox III, a 693K SF facility.

Also, in July, USAA Real Estate and McDonald Property Group broke ground in Beaumont—about 30 miles northeast of Perris and just south of Cherry Valley—on a 1.8M SF manufacturing and distribution facility for NY-based United Legwear & Apparel.