Another Large Warehouse Center Breaking Ground In Inland Empire

FONTANA, CA — Construction on another large logistics center is beginning in the Inland Empire, despite some pushback against the ever-expanding sector.

Newport Beach-based Birtcher Development announced Monday that construction is expected to begin in the next few months on a 330,048-square-foot distribution facility at the corner of Banana Avenue and Santa Ana Avenue in Fontana. Completion of the Birtcher Logistics Center Fontana is anticipated in early 2024, according to the company.

Birtcher is "bullish about the future of the Inland Empire’s industrial market" given what the company says is the number of active tenants and "limited available space with vacancy just under 1%," according to Brooke Birtcher Gustafson, managing director of Birtcher Development. "Altogether, we believe these market dynamics continue to justify the need for steady growth and delivery of high-quality product in the near term.”

The Birtcher Logistics Center Fontana project will be located less than five miles from Interstates 10, 15, and 210, as well as state Route 60, Ontario International Airport and a Union Pacific intermodal yard.

In November, Birtcher also announced grading had begun on its 2.5-million-square-foot industrial campus, Birtcher Oak Valley Commerce Center, in Calimesa. Construction of the first phase of the project is expected to be completed in early 2024. Read more here.

The logistics industry, which involves the hauling and storage of goods, has thrived in the Inland Empire for years. Warehouses have sprouted in the once-open spaces of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, and the resulting traffic congestion and poor air quality pose a dilemma for the region.

Some local cities have pushed back, and environmental groups have waged war against the logistics sector.

According to a Sept. 2022 report from KCRW, in the mid-1970s there were around 160 warehouses in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

“Now there are, in both counties combined, I think 4,300,” University of Redlands Economics Professor Johannes Moenius told the public radio station. “The square footage has now reached a billion. That is 37 square miles.”

There is more to come. Amazon’s biggest warehouse on the planet is taking shape on a former livestock feedlot in Ontario. When it’s finished next year, the five-story facility will total more than 4 million square feet.

Jobs will not be plenty at the behemoth facility, according to the KCRW report.

"Despite its spaciousness, [Amazon] estimates it’ll employ fewer than 2,000 people — robots will be doing a lot of the work," the news outlet reported.

In 2021, the Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability at Pitzer College began creating an animated map of warehouse growth in the Inland Empire stretching back to 1975.

"The map makes warehouses in the Inland Empire look like the spread of a disease," according to a Los Angeles Times op-ed penned by the nonprofit's leader, Susan A. Phillips.

Forty percent of the nation’s goods now travel through the Inland Empire, mainly in diesel trucks but also via trains and planes, according to Phillips.

"Their combined emissions caused the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario area to have the worst air quality in the United States as of 2019. This means we have more days of high ozone and particulate matter exposure than most places in the country," Phillips wrote.

Inland Empire cities are finally taking notice. In October, a massive warehouse project proposed off I-10 in Beaumont was unanimously halted by City Council. Last year, Pomona, Chino, Redlands, Norco and Colton all passed ordinances to temporarily pause the warehouse development in order to study the industry's impacts on their cities.

Mark Tomich, Colton’s development services director, told KCRW, “Large logistics facilities often don’t pay their way because they don’t typically generate sales tax, only property tax. And then they don’t necessarily contribute greatly to local spending because of the limited number of employees.

"Logistics can’t really be the backbone of our economy," Tomich continued. "The wages aren’t there — and not that many employees. So, I don’t think in the long term that that type of industry is a positive for this region."