Apex Real Estate Services · DRE #01422904 · CCIM-Led
Hemet, CA · (951) 977-3251
Vacancy, rents, absorption, construction and pricing for all 15 CoStar industrial submarkets, from the Airport Area’s port-fed logistics core to Beaumont/Hemet and the Coachella Valley: Apex’s analysis of CoStar data for Q3 2026, with a CCIM broker’s read for owners, investors and tenants.
The Inland Empire industrial market report for Q3 2026 shows a market that is stabilizing: 8.7% vacancy across 795.9 million SF, a market asking rent of $1.03 per SF per month, 6.1 million SF of trailing 12-month net absorption and 14.0 million SF under construction, per Apex’s analysis of CoStar data. Leverage still sits with tenants, and CoStar forecasts vacancy easing to 8% in 2027.
Reviewed by Robert Mendieta Jr., CCIM (DRE #01422904), Associate Broker · Commercial Division, Apex Real Estate Services · Last updated: September 30, 2026
CoStar tracks 795.9 million SF of Inland Empire industrial space and ranks it the sixth-largest industrial market in the nation by inventory and second by asset value, behind only Los Angeles; industrial is 61.2% of the region’s commercial real estate inventory. Apex lists its quarterly research reports on the market reports page.
| Metric | Q3 2026 | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Inventory | 795,864,262 SF | Logistics 675.6M SF · specialized industrial 104.1M SF · flex 16.2M SF |
| Vacancy rate | 8.7% | Logistics 9.5% · specialized 3.9% · flex 6.2%; historical average 6.2% |
| Availability rate | 12.5% | Includes sublease and under-construction space; a 15-year high |
| Market asking rent | $1.03/SF/mo | −0.9% over 12 months · logistics $0.97 · specialized $1.33 · flex $1.55 |
| Net absorption | +2,809,238 SF | Q3 2026; trailing 12 months 6.1M SF versus a prior 10-year average of 17.2M SF |
| Deliveries | 1,698,742 SF | Q3 2026; trailing 12 months 7.5M SF |
| Under construction | 14,025,734 SF | 34 properties · 1.8% of inventory · 52.4% pre-leased (incl. Amazon’s 2.5M SF Hesperia build) |
| Market cap rate | 4.9% | CoStar estimate for all properties; closed sales averaged 5.9% (range 3.8% to 12.0%) |
| 12-mo sales | $4.4B · 453 transactions | Average transaction price $204/SF; CoStar market sale price $258/SF |
| Sale vs. asking price | −9.6% | Average gap between sale price and asking price; 84.3% average leased at sale |
Source: Apex’s analysis of CoStar data, Inland Empire Industrial Market and Capital Markets reports, Q3 2026 (dated September 30, 2026); rankings and inventory share from CoStar’s About the Market report (August 2026). Sales are trailing 12 months; the market cap rate and market sale price are CoStar estimates across all properties.
CoStar divides the Inland Empire industrial market into 15 submarkets. They are statistical areas, not city limits: the Airport Area is the submarket CoStar defines to include Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga and Fontana, and at 259 million SF it is, per CoStar, the nation’s largest industrial submarket. The table ranks all 15 by inventory.
| Submarket | Inventory | Vacancy | Asking Rent /SF/Mo | 12-Mo Rent Change | 12-Mo Net Absorption (SF) | Under Construction (SF) | Market Cap Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airport Area | 259.2M SF | 8.2% | $1.06 | −1.2% | −862,131 | 5,583,405 | 4.7% |
| Moreno Valley/Perris | 112.4M SF | 9.6% | $0.86 | −1.3% | +5,381,308 | 1,998,089 | 4.8% |
| San Bernardino | 106.7M SF | 10.5% | $0.90 | −1.0% | +2,333,201 | 569,798 | 5.0% |
| Riverside | 83.0M SF | 7.5% | $1.07 | −0.8% | −1,054,652 | 0 | 4.9% |
| Chino/Chino Hills | 57.5M SF | 6.2% | $1.08 | −1.0% | −595,985 | 0 | 4.7% |
| Corona/Eastvale | 39.7M SF | 7.5% | $1.24 | −0.1% | −654,563 | 0 | 5.2% |
| Redlands/Loma Linda | 33.9M SF | 8.2% | $0.90 | −1.5% | +1,607,992 | 0 | 4.8% |
| Mojave River Valley | 33.3M SF | 13.4% | $0.91 | −0.6% | +874,689 | 2,500,000 | 5.4% |
| South Riverside | 24.6M SF | 5.4% | $1.28 | +0.3% | +359,935 | 3,057,152 | 5.7% |
| Coachella Valley | 17.7M SF | 4.3% | $1.45 | +0.5% | +726,474 | 5,084 | 6.3% |
| Beaumont/Hemet | 15.4M SF | 19.7% | $0.93 | −0.8% | −2,410,007 | 312,206 | 4.9% |
| Upland/Montclair | 10.8M SF | 5.8% | $1.39 | 0% | +435,623 | 0 | 5.5% |
| Riverside Outlying | 0.7M SF | 10.5% | $1.20 | +0.7% | 0 | 0 | 5.5% |
| Twentynine Palms | 0.5M SF | n/a | $1.39 | 0% | +11,230 | 0 | 5.5% |
| San Bernardino Outlying | 0.4M SF | 17.2% | $1.29 | −0.1% | −58,500 | 0 | 5.4% |
| Inland Empire total | 795.9M SF | 8.7% | $1.03 | −0.9% | +6,094,614 | 14,025,734 | 4.9% |
Source: Apex’s analysis of CoStar data, Inland Empire Industrial Market, Capital Markets and submarket reports, Q3 2026 (dated September 30, 2026). Rent is CoStar’s market asking rent; absorption and rent change are trailing 12 months; market cap rates are CoStar estimates. CoStar reports no vacancy figure for Twentynine Palms. Inventory is rounded to 0.1 million SF.
Three patterns stand out. Demand has moved east: Moreno Valley/Perris, San Bernardino and Redlands/Loma Linda led absorption as tenants filled new buildings, while the Airport Area, Riverside, Chino/Chino Hills and Corona/Eastvale gave back space. Rents are still drifting lower almost everywhere; only Riverside Outlying, the Coachella Valley and South Riverside posted 12-month gains. And remaining supply is concentrated in the Airport Area, South Riverside and the Mojave River Valley, with South Riverside’s pipeline equal to 12.4% of its inventory. Read it by role: tenants have the most leverage where vacancy is highest, owners in the tightest submarkets (the Coachella Valley, South Riverside and Upland/Montclair) have the firmest pricing, though South Riverside’s pipeline could test it, and investors can weigh each market cap rate against its vacancy and pipeline.
Beaumont/Hemet is the outlier. Its vacancy went from 1.1% at the end of 2025 to 19.7% in Q3 2026, the highest of the 15 submarkets, after large move-outs that included SHEIN vacating 815,000 SF in Cherry Valley. With 24.0% of its space available and CoStar forecasting 19.8% vacancy at the end of 2026, tenants along the I-10 Pass have real choice and landlords should expect longer lease-up. Apex’s office is in Hemet, and we report the number plainly. For development context, see the Beaumont commercial development guide.
Tenants never stopped leasing: CoStar counts around 50 million SF of new leasing in 2025, only the second time the market has reached that mark, and a quarterly record of more than 13 million SF in Q2 2026. Occupancy has been uneven. Net absorption turned negative in Q2 as Modway listed 600,000 SF in Hesperia for sublet, SHEIN vacated 815,000 SF in Cherry Valley and Kimberly-Clark’s fire-demolished 1.2 million SF Ontario warehouse weighed on move-outs. It swung back to a positive 2.8 million SF in Q3 as tenants took occupancy of a 1.3 million SF building at Speedway Commerce Center in Fontana and four other large buildings.
Size is the clearest dividing line. CoStar puts availability under 7% for buildings smaller than 50,000 SF and around 10% for 50,000 to 100,000 SF, versus about 14% for 100,000 to 250,000 SF and 18% for 250,000 to 500,000 SF; the largest boxes run in the 12% range. Small users still compete for space, while big-box tenants can negotiate. See what that means for choosing an industrial real estate broker.
CoStar’s house view has vacancy falling to 8% in 2027 and near 7% by the end of 2028 as retail sales growth lifts demand and the pipeline thins. The risks: the Inland Empire is a bulk distribution market reliant on goods imported through the Los Angeles ports, imports have been volatile because of tariffs, and U.S. retail spending projections have been revised lower.
CoStar’s market asking rent for Inland Empire industrial space is $1.03 per SF per month in Q3 2026, down 0.9% over 12 months; logistics buildings ask $0.97, specialized industrial $1.33 and flex $1.55. Space is usually quoted monthly on a triple-net basis, with taxes, insurance and common-area costs on top (see the triple net lease guide). Name the measure before comparing: the market asking rent is 7.2% below its 2023 peak, while the triple-net average for available space, which CoStar says appears to have bottomed in early 2025, is about 25% below its own 2023 peak.
Concessions widen the gap. CoStar reports effective rents up to 40% lower depending on location, size and vintage, with East-side rents down more severely, and one to several months of free rent is common on new, larger leases of five years or longer. Hanchett Paper Company, for example, leased a 223,000 SF Fontana building on a six-year, four-month term at a starting rate of $1.08 per SF per month, net, with six months free. Sublease space, 19% of all availability, trades at a discount of more than 20% to direct space.
Long-term tenants face the opposite problem at renewal: CoStar notes market asking rents are still up about 20% from five years ago and have nearly doubled over the past decade, and it forecasts rents to rise again in 2027. For the full cost stack, see what warehouse space costs in the Inland Empire, or compare buying with the own vs. lease calculator.
Construction underway has declined to 14.0 million SF from a high-water mark of 45.7 million SF in 2022, and starts slowed to 9 million SF in 2025, a decades-plus low, per CoStar. Deliveries could fall below 10 million SF in 2026. The pipeline equals 1.8% of inventory versus 2.1% nationally, and 52.4% of it is pre-leased, a share lifted by the fully pre-leased 2.5 million SF fulfillment center Amazon is developing in Hesperia.
Building remains concentrated in the Airport Area, with 5.6 million SF underway; mid-sized deliveries have extended southeast into Norco, Corona and Perris, and developers have started three more speculative buildings over 1 million SF, two in Menifee and one in Ontario. Policy is a growing constraint: CoStar notes temporary moratoriums on industrial construction in several Inland Empire cities, and Beaumont, Moreno Valley and Fontana have rejected some recent industrial proposals, a rarity in the past. For how the new California warehouse siting rules apply here, see our guide to the AB 98 warehouse law.
CoStar counts 453 transactions totaling $4.4 billion over the past 12 months at an average transaction cap rate of 5.9%, while its market cap rate, an estimate across all properties, holds at 4.9%. Volume fell for a fourth straight year to $3 billion in 2025, but Q2 2026 volume was more than double Q2 2025. Cap rates on logistics sales above $10 million have expanded by about 150 to 200 basis points, into the mid 5% to 6% range, and modern, fully leased institutional logistics buildings have priced near $250 per SF since 2022.
CoStar names Premier Logistics Properties, Penwood, AEW and Prologis among 2026’s sizable buyers. One benchmark: in December 2025, Overton Moore bought a 526,000 SF San Bernardino logistics facility on 56 acres, including about 30 acres of excess land, from Brookfield for $123 million, or $234 per SF, at a reported year-one pro forma cap rate in the high 5% range, fully leased to Kohl’s. By submarket, market cap rates run from 4.7% in the Airport Area and Chino/Chino Hills to 6.3% in the Coachella Valley. Owners can start with a free property valuation or a sale-leaseback; buyers can review how to calculate a cap rate. Investors can also start with our commercial real estate due diligence checklist.
Port-fed logistics at national scale. Buildings of 500,000 SF and up run in the 12% availability range, per CoStar, and only two of the 20 buildings over 1 million SF delivered since 2023 remain fully available. Logistics buildings over 250,000 SF typically command rents near $1.00 per SF per month here, about 30% above the national level.
The segment with the most tenant leverage: CoStar puts availability around 14% for 100,000 to 250,000 SF and 18% for 250,000 to 500,000 SF, the highest of any size range, and about 75 buildings of 100,000 to 500,000 SF delivered since 2024 are 70% available. Tenant representation and landlord representation work both sides of that negotiation. Tenants comparing options can also see our guide to warehouse site selection.
The tightest corner of the market. Buildings under 50,000 SF have availability under 7%, and flex space (16.2 million SF) is 6.2% vacant at a $1.55 asking rent, per CoStar. The Mojave River Valley alone logged nearly 90 leases of 20,000 SF or less in 2025. Owner-users can weigh the SBA 504 route to owning a warehouse.
CoStar’s specialized industrial segment, covering manufacturing and other purpose-built buildings, totals 104.1 million SF at 3.9% vacancy, the lowest of the three segments, and a $1.33 asking rent. In South Riverside, a concentration of smaller manufacturing buildings helps keep asking rents roughly 20% above the metro average, per CoStar.
Truck, trailer and equipment yards trade as their own asset class; the CoStar reports behind this page do not break them out, so Apex prices yards deal by deal. Apex’s guide to industrial outdoor storage explains per-acre pricing, and Apex currently markets a ±2.18-acre fenced truck and trailer yard in Yucaipa with I-10 visibility.
Industrial dominates the region, but portfolios rarely hold one asset type. Apex publishes companion hubs for office, retail and land, plus the desert market next door.
Vacancy, rents and leasing for the region’s professional and medical office buildings, submarket by submarket. Inland Empire office market report
Neighborhood centers, pad sites and net-leased retail: vacancy, rents and investment sales across the region. Inland Empire retail market report
Industrial and commercial sites, entitlement and ordinance risk, and what the construction pipeline means for land demand. Inland Empire land market
The desert submarket, home to the highest industrial asking rents in the Inland Empire, plus retail, office and land from Palm Springs to Indio. Coachella Valley commercial real estate
Everything below is live: guides, services, tools and current listings for industrial owners, investors and tenants.
Robert Mendieta Jr., CCIM (DRE #01422904) brings institutional-grade investment analysis to every industrial assignment: cap-rate math, absorption trends and submarket comps rather than listing-agent guesswork. Learn what a CCIM is.
From the Airport Area and Moreno Valley/Perris to Beaumont/Hemet and the Coachella Valley, Apex covers the Inland Empire from its Hemet office, with no hand-offs between regions.
Acquisitions, dispositions, leasing, landlord and tenant representation, sale-leasebacks and 1031 replacement sourcing for warehouses, small-bay buildings, manufacturing plants and yards.
You work directly with Robert Mendieta Jr., CCIM, Associate Broker · Commercial Division, from first consultation through closing. Joseph Lombera, Commercial Agent + CMO (DRE #01971957), supports marketing and deal flow.
Per Apex’s analysis of CoStar data, Inland Empire industrial vacancy was 8.7% in Q3 2026, with availability at 12.5%, a 15-year high. The market asking rent averaged $1.03 per SF per month, down 0.9% over 12 months. Trailing 12-month net absorption was 6.1 million SF, well below the prior 10-year average of 17.2 million SF, and 14.0 million SF was under construction, just 1.8% of inventory. CoStar forecasts vacancy easing to 8% in 2027 and near 7% by the end of 2028.
Among CoStar’s 15 Inland Empire industrial submarkets, the Coachella Valley had the lowest reported vacancy in Q3 2026 at 4.3%, followed by South Riverside at 5.4% and Upland/Montclair at 5.8%. Beaumont/Hemet had the highest at 19.7%, up from 1.1% at the end of 2025 after large move-outs that included SHEIN vacating 815,000 SF in Cherry Valley. The Airport Area, the largest submarket, stood at 8.2%. Submarkets are CoStar’s statistical areas, not city limits.
CoStar’s Q3 2026 market asking rent for Inland Empire industrial space is $1.03 per SF per month: $0.97 for logistics buildings, $1.33 for specialized industrial and $1.55 for flex. By submarket, asking rents run from $0.86 in Moreno Valley/Perris to $1.45 in the Coachella Valley. The triple-net average for available space sits about 25% below its 2023 peak, and CoStar reports effective rents up to 40% lower once concessions are counted; one to several months of free rent is common on new, larger leases of five years or longer.
Start with the requirement, not a listing site: square footage, clear height, dock doors, power, yard or trailer parking, access to I-10, I-15 or I-215, and timing. Then search direct and sublease space together; sublease listings make up about 19% of Inland Empire industrial availability and trade at a discount of more than 20% to direct space, per CoStar’s Q3 2026 report. A tenant representative surveys both and negotiates free rent and improvements. Apex posts current availabilities on its properties for lease page.
Over the 12 months through Q3 2026, CoStar recorded 453 Inland Empire industrial sales totaling $4.4 billion, at an average transaction cap rate of 5.9% and an average of $204 per SF; CoStar’s market cap rate, an estimate across all properties, was 4.9%. Modern, fully leased institutional logistics buildings have priced near $250 per SF since 2022, and properties sold for an average of 9.6% below their asking price. CoStar expects pricing to hold fairly stable in 2026 and rise again in 2027.
Over the trailing 12 months, Moreno Valley/Perris led the Inland Empire with 5,381,308 SF of positive net absorption, followed by San Bernardino at 2,333,201 SF and Redlands/Loma Linda at 1,607,992 SF, per Apex’s analysis of CoStar data for Q3 2026. Six submarkets gave back space, led by Beaumont/Hemet at 2,410,007 SF, Riverside at 1,054,652 SF and the Airport Area at 862,131 SF. Market-wide, 12-month net absorption was 6.1 million SF.
Call Robert Mendieta Jr., CCIM at (951) 977-3251, email robert@apex-res.com or use the form on this page. Owners get a broker opinion of value or a leasing strategy built on submarket comps and CoStar data; tenants get a requirement-based search across direct and sublease space; buyers and 1031 exchangers get sourcing and underwriting. Apex covers all 15 CoStar industrial submarkets from its office at 3750 E. Florida Ave Suite A, Hemet, CA 92544.
Whether you own a distribution building, need small-bay space, are weighing a sale-leaseback or are sourcing a 1031 replacement, start with a data-first conversation: submarket comps, CoStar figures and a straight read on value or rent. No call center, no hand-offs.
Apex Real Estate Services · 3750 E. Florida Ave Suite A, Hemet, CA 92544 · DRE #01422904
Apex Real Estate Services · Robert Mendieta Jr., CCIM, Associate Broker · Commercial Division, DRE #01422904 · 3750 E. Florida Ave Suite A, Hemet, CA 92544 · (951) 977-3251 · Joseph Lombera, Commercial Agent + CMO, DRE #01971957. This Inland Empire industrial market report is Apex’s analysis of CoStar data: CoStar’s Q3 2026 Inland Empire industrial market, capital markets and submarket reports, dated September 30, 2026, and its About the Market report for the Inland Empire (August 2026). Yard details are from Apex’s own listing. Figures describe CoStar’s market and submarket definitions, not city limits, for the periods noted. Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed, is subject to change and should be independently verified.
