Tesla leases Alere’s newly built IE facility

San Bernardino Lease Runs Nearly 322K SF

Newport Beach-based industrial developer and investor Alere Property Group has signed on Tesla for the entirety of a recently built warehouse in San Bernardino that runs about 322,000 square feet.

The warehouse, at 19640 Cajon Blvd., will serve as a distribution facility for auto parts and other products made by the electric vehicle company (Nasdaq: TSLA), the world’s most valuable automaker with a market cap topping $600 billion.

The facility is situated on more than 20 acres alongside the 215 freeway, and includes 5,000 square feet of office space. It is located along San Bernardino’s Cajon Corridor, “providing quick access to the I-10, I-215 and CA-60 freeways,” according to the developer. Alere broke ground on the facility in 2019; Daum Commercial handled leasing efforts.

IE Base

The property is part of Alere’s sprawling Inland Empire portfolio that tops several million square feet.

The company counts several industrial facilities in the region that are larger than 1 million square feet, a rarity for land-constrained Orange County.

This includes a 1.1 million-square-foot distribution building in Moreno Valley that wrapped construction in 2018.

Tesla Holdings

The new San Bernardino facility joins a growing Inland Empire base for Tesla.

Reports indicate the automaker is in negotiations with the city of San Bernardino to develop an underground people-mover connecting Ontario International Airport with Rancho Cucamonga.

The proposed tunnel has an estimated construction cost of $85 million.

Tesla also recently opened a 20,500-squarefoot sales and service repair facility in Temecula.

In OC, it has a nearly 60,000-square-foot sales and repair shop that’s close to opening in Irvine, its first location in the city, home to one of its bigger markets for car sales.

Alere’s OC Portfolio

In Orange County, Alere recently acquired two industrial facilities in separate deals topping $35 million.

It most recently paid $23 million for a 5.2acre site in Irvine.

The property at 1062 McGaw Ave. near the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway currently holds a vacant 107,600-square-foot industrial building once used by Ricoh Electronics.

The existing McGaw Avenue building is expected be demolished to make way for a new, 120,000-square-foot industrial facility, according to filings with the city of Irvine.

This is one of several notable local buys for Alere since the start of last year.

The company kicked off 2020 with its purchase of an Irvine industrial building at 17353 Derian Ave. for $16.6 million. At the end of the year, Alere made a portfolio buy totaling $32 million for a 76,000-square-foot and 34,650-squarefoot building at 1922-1924 Barranca Parkway, also in Irvine. ■