High interest rates and high inflation aren’t scaring Brookfield away from industrial properties.
The alternative investment firm’s logistics unit bought a newly built 1.8-million-square-foot, two-building distribution center in the Inland Empire city of Cherry Valley for $328.7 million, according to property records filed with Riverside County. The deal came out to around $183 per square foot.
The sellers, Shopoff Realty Investments and Artemis Real Estate Partners, announced the deal this week, but did not disclose a sale price or the tenant. A team led by CBRE’s Barbara Perrier and Darla Longo brokered the deal on behalf of Brookfield.
The two warehouses are leased to Shein, the fast fashion company most recently valued at about $64 billion. Shein plans to use the warehouse for a Southern California distribution hub, with more than 1,000 employees.
The sale is a windfall for both Shopoff and Artemis, which together secured a $105 million construction loan for the project from Bank OZK in April 2021 and expected to spend about $185 million on development. Construction on the two-building development finished in December.
Investors have poured billions of dollars into industrial real estate over the last three years, as the pandemic spurred an uptick in online shopping and led a number of e-commerce companies to rapidly add more distribution space.
Brookfield owns at least 16 industrial properties in the Inland Empire, mostly development sites or newly built facilities that can justify higher rents.
