What makes the Inland Empire, specifically San Bernardino County, a perfect destination for logistics and e-Commerce startups?

According to Ron Starner, Executive Vice President of Conway Inc., a full-service economic development consulting firm specializing in corporate expansion & relocation and foreign direct investment, what makes San Bernardino especially attractive for logistics businesses is an international airport, best-in-class freeways and state highways, ports offering long-haul rail access and multimodal logistics facilities, and a robust rail network.

We Covered this in our Weekly Wire Roundup

Demand Outstrips Supply

Let’s start with the industrial space’s strong recovery after the pandemic-induced slowdown.

The industrial land and space market in San Bernardino County shows a vacancy rate for available space below 1% for the entire market.

“In fact, in a market of 500 million square feet, just 0.7% of that space is now vacant. We are seeing strong demand for tenant buildings, and the lease rates continue to trend upward. Land sale prices are also trending up for this market.”

Eloy Covarrubias | SVP of industrial specialty and land advisory CBRE

The latest report by CBRE, a leader in commercial real estate services and investments, observed that “the bulk of demand is coming from overseas 3PLs, logistics, and e-commerce tenants who service the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.”

Ron Starner further writes about the rail network expansion (by BNSF) and new transportation initiatives, both above and below the ground, by the SBCTA (San Bernardino County Transport Authority have set a futuristic agenda to provide permissions to perform certain tasks.

The region offers an integrated transport, warehouse, logistics, rail network, and airport, making it a perfect supply chain startup.

Startempire Wire’s Coverage of San Bernardino’s Key Role

We wrote about several important events and projects shaping up in the county. Take, for instance, a $266M Bus Transit System Coming to San Bernardino in 2024. “Phase I of the project is a 19 miles long BRT corridor that traverses the cities of Pomona, Montclair, Ontario, and Rancho Cucamonga with 21 stations altogether between these cities“.

We also wrote about Amazon’s $200M Air Hub in the county, which the e-Commerce giant announced in April this year.

This is yet another addition of an air hub to Amazon’s expansive air freight network of seven air sites in the state. The 660K-square foot sorting facility started operating at the San Bernardino International Airport. The company took over the airport facility formerly known as the Eastgate Air Cargo Logistics Center built by San Bernardino International Airport and Hillwood Enterprises, LP back in 2019.

Startempire Wire

And lastly, we talked about the Opportunity Zones of San Bernardino County. These will help the county provides a way for its green- and clean-energy goals. It can also strengthen long-term investments in low-income urban and rural communities. 

Related: You can also read our reports about the rapid growth in the Logistics and distribution section as indicated by the Ryder Whiplash acquisition we discussed in this post: Ryder Gobbles Up e-Commerce Fulfillment Company Whiplash Logistics for $480M: Distribution and Logistics Market Heats Up.

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