Numerically, the Inland Empire is one of the largest and most rapidly growing economies in the nation, similar to metro areas such as Houston and Washington DC.
The Inland Empire is far more than a bedroom community for the large coastal economies it borders. Based on overall population and the size of the resident labor force, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties combine to be the 13th largest Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in the United States.
The region has also been one of the fastest growing; in 1980 the Inland Empire was ranked 23rd among MSAs in the nation. The only other economy to move this fast up the ranking was Phoenix. While hundreds of thousands of Inland Empire residents commute west and south on a daily basis for work, the two counties are also the location of employment for over 1.1 million payroll workers, making it the 19th largest employment center in the nation, just behind St. Louis, Denver, and Baltimore, and larger than Tampa, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and San Jose.
-Excerpt from UC Riverside School of Business Center for Economic Forecasting & Development, Nov. 2017 Economy White Paper Series
The North American industrial market has experienced a record-setting run, registering some of the strongest leasing tallies and tightest market conditions on record. Across the continent, occupier demand for modern, functional logistics space has been strong, with leasing of newly constructed speculative and build-to-suit product accounting for over half of the net occupancy gains since 2016.
We expect this trend to continue. Between year-end 2017 and 2019, Cushman & Wakefield anticipates the North American industrial market will post 655 million square feet (msf) of net absorption—which would place it among the strongest periods on record, second only to 2014-2016, when net absorption hit 833 msf.
During the next two years, demand will be most robust in port-proximate markets, inland distribution hubs, and major population centers. From 2017-2019, the Inland Empire, Chicago, Dallas,
New Jersey, Toronto, the Pennsylvania I-81/I-78 Distribution Corridor, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Phoenix, and Nashville will see the greatest net occupancy gains.
-Excerpt from Cushman & Wakefield, NORTH AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL FORECAST REPORT 2018-2019