Demand Heats Up for East Bay Industrial Space
The I-880 corridor in Oakland is the site of the East Bay’s biggest new industrial Class A development — a giant 534,208-square-foot logistics facility at 5441 International Blvd. now undergoing construction and expected to finish late this year. Located just south of Fruitvale Station, the site exemplifies the corridor: It’s one mile from I-880, four miles from Oakland International Airport and five miles from the Port of Oakland.
General Electric had been trying to redevelop the 24-acre site since 2010 but toxic chemicals — a legacy of its use as a transformer manufacturer for half a century under GE — complicated the picture.
Last year, GE sold the site to Chicago-based Bridge Development Partners LLC for $37.8 million, which submitted plans to the city to redevelop it. CBRE began preleasing the space even before it started construction, a time frame that gives a prospective tenant time to acquire all the property paperwork with the city and do any necessary office buildouts.
Bridge Development Partners Vice President Greg Woolway told me there has been robust activity along the entire I-880 corridor over the past few months but a noticeable lack of many spaces over 500,000 square feet.
//bizjournals.com
