Area Development
Goodman Group, Australia's largest listed industrial property group, reported its North American subsidiary, Goodman Birtcher, launched development of a new $150 million logistics center at Rancho Cucamonga in the Inland Empire West market of Southern California.

In 2012, the company acquired the 74.9 acre property at Rancho Cucamonga, where it is developing a new logistics center offering a total of 1,589,946 square feet of prime quality logistics space at the strategically located site. The logistics center has been named Goodman Logistics Center Rancho Cucamonga and will comprise two cross-dock facilities of 555,664 square feet and 1,034,282 square feet, which are expected to complete in March 2015 and May 2015 respectively.

The company said the move “signals the launch of a 15 million square foot development pipeline in key US logistics markets, which will result in $1.4 billion of development work in progress from Goodman Birtcher's operations over the next three years. It also follows the recent practical completion of Goodman Logistics Center Oakland, a new $45 million logistics facility in the Bay area's logistics hub.”

Company officials noted Goodman Birtcher has “secured strategically located, class A sites in key logistics locations near urban centers and key transport infrastructure across its primary target markets of California, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.”

Brandon Birtcher, CEO Goodman Birtcher said: "We are very pleased to be launching the development of Goodman Logistics Center Rancho Cucamonga. The project positions us well to take advantage of the significant demand for class A logistics and warehousing space in the key Inland Empire West market, particularly for Big Box facilities of greater than 500,000 square feet."

"With 1.6 million square feet of new space under construction, Goodman Logistics Center Rancho Cucamonga offers the only distribution warehouse space of this size in the local market, while its flexible design is capable of satisfying the requirements of a broad range of customer groups."

The two cross-dock facilities being constructed have a flexible and sustainable design, catering to a range of potential uses and would be well suited for logistics and e-commerce customers. Both buildings will offer a clear height of 36 feet, ample trailer parking stalls, superior site access and maneuvering space, with generous truck court depths of a minimum 185 feet.

Goodman Logistics Center Rancho Cucamonga is well located in close proximity to transport infrastructure, being less than one mile from the 15 freeway, less than two miles from the 10 freeway and seven miles from Ontario International Airport, a public airport two miles east of downtown Ontario, a city in San Bernardino County, California.

Goodman Group CEO, Mr. Greg Goodman said: "We are very pleased with the progress being made in our North American business. Our focus over the past two years has been to assemble a high quality portfolio of class A sites in our target locations and we are now ready to commence the rollout of a significant development program, at a time when key US investment demand drivers are recovering and the supply of high quality, big box warehouse space remains limited."

"As a long-term owner of high quality assets, with capital in place through our partnership with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and the ability to draw on our global expertise, development capability and customer relationships, Goodman Birtcher is well positioned to provide our North American customers with a flexible and innovative product and service offering," Goodman added.

Company officials said Goodman Birtcher has built a substantial land bank in the key Southern California logistics market, providing a range of opportunities to benefit from the limited supply of high grade, large format industrial space. In addition to Rancho Cucamonga, a further 269 acres of developable land is available across a number of sites, which are currently at different stages of the planning approval process.

The company’s projects in Southern California include:

Goodman Logistics Center Fontana -- a recently acquired 30 acre site in Fontana for the planned development of a single 639,000 s.f. logistics facility.

Goodman Commerce Center Eastvale -- a 181 acre site located within the City of Eastvale and adjacent to the 15 freeway. It offers a mixed-use development plan providing a variety of potential uses including retail, medical, hospitality, office, business park and light industrial totalling 3.7 million square feet.

Goodman Logistics Center Santa Fe Springs -- a master planned 53 acre site offering a planned total of 1.2 million s.f. of warehouse distribution facilities across three buildings.

Goodman Logistics Center Compton -- a 5 acre site offering the planned development of approximately 102,000 square feet logistics facility, located just two miles from the 110 and 105 freeways.

"The range of projects we are bringing to the Southwest market will enable us to deliver up to a total of 6.2 million square feet of new class A industrial product and facilitate the rollout of our quality service offering for customers across the region," Mr. Birtcher said.