Empire Corporate Plaza to rent office space
RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- It isn't as if Empire Corporate Plaza will provide the first Class A office space in the Inland Valley.
It isn't as if the 15-acre project -- adjacent to Empire Lakes Golf Course -- is really anything new. The development around Empire Lakes and Ontario Mills has occurred nearly as fast as developers can throw up buildings.
The project isn't high-rise office buildings, something that would be fairly new to the area.
Empire Corporate Plaza is none of those things, but it still has folks excited about its construction because it's the largest Class A project in the Inland Empire built on speculation.
Not only that, it's being built at a time when the market appears at least to be cooling.
Despite the downturn, nobody really believes the nearly 400,000 square feet of office space that will be ready for occupation beginning in April will go unused.
"The space will be taken," regional economist John Husing said. "The only question is what the pace of absorption will be."
The project is being built in two phases. Phase One includes three two-story buildings, each with 84,604 square feet, while Phase Two will add two additional two-story buildings each with 75,636 square feet.
A Class A building is defined by the quality of its construction materials, its level of access and quality of its location, the level of its rents and the quality of its tenants and management.
In other words, don't expect to see bail bondsmen or check-cashing stores in a Class A project.
"It's apparent that the market out there is ready for more of these projects," said Jack Kyser, chief economist with the L.A. County Economic Development Corp. "It's just a shame they aren't building taller buildings. It sounds like the only thing they'll be missing is a nice view."
Husing isn't concerned about the downturn in the housing market. In fact, he says, it could propel more development in the Inland Empire.
"There is a lot of space being sublet right now in Orange County that is not being used by companies involved with the housing market," he said. "When the market recovers, and it always recovers, the question is whether these companies will reopen their offices down there to serve this market or whether they'll move out here.
"I think they'll move out here."
That's the attitude IDS Real Estate Group is taking with this project. Build it and they will come.
"Rancho Cucamonga has great name recognition within the corporate office marketplace," Rob Fuelling, senior vice president of IDS, said in a release. "Along with several other factors, the area offers an outstanding quality of life and a wide diversity of housing options for its residents.
"We wanted to offer highly efficient, top-quality Class A office space to businesses whose employees could live in the community."
Linda Daniels, redevelopment director for Rancho Cucamonga, said the project would create opportunities for companies wanting to locate in the city.
Said Daniels: "We are finding that the city has become increasingly attractive to companies specializing in research and development, health care, financial services, insurance, banking and high technology."
