Apex Real Estate Services · DRE #01422904 · CCIM-Led
Hemet, CA · (951) 977-3251
Riverside commercial real estate is a split market in 2026. CoStar’s Riverside submarket leads the Inland Empire in new retail construction and remains one of its most active industrial sales markets, while industrial and office occupancy are shrinking. This guide covers industrial, office, retail and investment property in Riverside, CA, with Q3 2026 CoStar data and the trades that set local pricing.
Riverside commercial real estate in 2026 gives industrial tenants leverage and retail landlords pricing power. CoStar’s Riverside submarket shows 7.5% industrial vacancy after 1.05 million SF of negative absorption, 5.9% office vacancy with the Inland Empire’s weakest office absorption, and 4.9% retail vacancy as demand outpaces deliveries. Commercial property for lease in Riverside, CA prices differently by asset type.
Riverside is the largest city in the Inland Empire, with more than 310,000 residents, according to CoStar. One caution before reading any figure below: a CoStar submarket is not a city boundary. The Riverside submarket includes Jurupa Valley addresses, and some Riverside-addressed industrial buildings near Meridian Business Park are counted in CoStar’s Moreno Valley/Perris submarket.
Retail is now the tightest asset type in Riverside and is adding the most new space, while industrial and office are both losing occupancy. Inland Empire (IE) figures appear where CoStar publishes one.
| Metric | Industrial | Office | Retail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inventory | ~83.0M SF · 1,644 bldgs · 4th of 15 | ~11.6M SF · 801 bldgs · 3rd of 15 | ~17.1M SF · 1,795 bldgs · 6th of 15 |
| Vacancy | 7.5% (IE 8.7%) | 5.9% (IE 4.7%) | 4.9% (IE 6.0%) |
| 12-mo net absorption | −1,054,652 SF (14th of 15) | −110,175 SF (15th of 15) | +240,852 SF (4th of 15) |
| Market asking rent | $1.07/SF (IE $1.03) · −0.8% YoY | $2.61/SF · +2.6% YoY | $2.40/SF (IE $2.29) · +3.4% YoY |
| Delivered, past 12 months | 39,000 SF (1 bldg) | None | 104,000 SF (10 bldgs) · 4th of 15 |
| Under construction | None | 42,640 SF (1 bldg, 100% pre-leased) | 399,000 SF (21 bldgs, 64.9% pre-leased) · 1st of 15 |
| Sales, past 12 months | 52 sales · 2.28M SF · 4.9% mkt cap · $263/SF | $81.0M · 19 sales · 8.3% mkt cap · $234/SF | $183.2M · 54 sales · 6.4% mkt cap · $298/SF |
Regional detail: the Inland Empire industrial market report, the Inland Empire office market and the Inland Empire retail market report.
Yes, and tenants have more leverage than the vacancy rate alone suggests. CoStar’s Riverside submarket posted the second-weakest industrial net absorption of the 15 Inland Empire submarkets over the past 12 months, and availability has climbed to an all-time high of 11.5%.
Riverside industrial real estate, as CoStar’s Riverside submarket measures it, totals 1,644 buildings and about 83 million SF, with an average existing building of about 50,500 SF. Vacancy is 7.5%, below the 8.7% market-wide rate, but occupied space fell by 1,054,652 SF over 12 months, 1.3% of inventory. See how availability compares with other Inland Empire submarkets in our guide to Inland Empire warehouse availability.
No new supply underway. Nothing is under construction in CoStar’s Riverside industrial submarket, and CoStar says developers have not started any notable projects there since the end of 2023. Across the whole Inland Empire, 14,025,734 SF is under construction. Source: CoStar Group, Inland Empire Industrial Market Report and Riverside Industrial Submarket Report, Q3 2026.
Rents are stabilizing: $1.07 per SF monthly, down 0.8% over 12 months but rising at a 0.7% annualized pace this quarter, just above the $1.03 IE figure.
For a tenant looking at warehouse space for lease in Riverside, softer rents and more vacant existing buildings mean room to negotiate term and concessions, not just face rent. Tenant representation starts with benchmarking; see what warehouse space costs in the Inland Empire. For owners, with nothing under construction, vacancy is a backfill problem, which is where landlord representation earns its fee.
Occupiers and net-lease investors, at a CoStar market price of $263 per SF. The Riverside submarket remains one of the most active of 15 submarkets for industrial sales over the trailing 12 months.
Those 52 sales covered 2.28 million SF at a CoStar market cap rate of 4.9%. That is a modeled rate; individual deals price on their own lease and building. See how that compares across the region in our guide to Inland Empire industrial cap rates.
One headline trade at a Riverside address was an owner-user deal: a 507,000-SF building at 1001 Columbia Ave sold to its occupant in January 2026. In the Jurupa Valley portion of the submarket, two 2019 buildings in Serrano Business Park sold for about $45 million each in mid-2026: a 180,840-SF building to an owner-user in July ($249/SF) and a fully leased 116,827-SF building to an investor in August ($386/SF). An occupier that already owns its building can go the other way through a sale-leaseback, selling the property and staying on as tenant.
In Meridian Business Park, a 600,727-SF building at 14600 Innovation Drive traded for $70.4 million in February 2026, up from $43.5 million in 2014, about 62% higher. A 1,002,189-SF Meridian Phase III building with a Riverside 92518 address sold for $145.1 million ($145/SF) in January 2026, but CoStar counts Meridian in its Moreno Valley/Perris submarket.
Apex is not a law, tax or accounting firm. A sale-leaseback or purchase carries tax consequences; consult your attorney and CPA.
Because move-outs have outpaced move-ins. Riverside’s office submarket has 5.9% vacancy, up from a record low in 2025, posted the weakest 12-month net absorption of all 15 Inland Empire office submarkets at negative 110,175 SF, and has one building under construction.
The submarket holds 801 buildings and about 11.6 million SF, 14.7% of IE office stock, and nothing delivered in the past year. Market asking rent is $2.61 per SF monthly, up 2.6% year over year.
CoStar reports the Inland Empire has the lowest office vacancy among the nation’s 50 largest office markets, at 4.7%. Among the three largest submarkets, Airport Area, San Bernardino and Riverside, CoStar’s tables put vacancy between 4.1% and 5.9%, and Riverside is at the high end of that range. CoStar ties the submarket’s negative absorption in the first half of 2026 largely to a 35,680-SF property at 4444 Magnolia Ave that was listed for lease in the first quarter and to second-quarter move-outs at 4210 Riverwalk Parkway and 2038 Iowa Ave. The only office project underway is a 42,640-SF building at 4440 Brockton Ave, fully pre-leased and due in December 2026.
Across the Inland Empire, most office leases signed since 2020 are under 1,500 SF, per CoStar. For a firm searching Riverside CA office space above that size, rising vacancy means more options than a year ago, but CoStar counts only slightly more than 20 Inland Empire properties offering 20,000 SF or more of contiguous space; start early.
Into CoStar’s Riverside submarket more than anywhere else in the Inland Empire. CoStar’s Riverside retail submarket ranks first of 15 in space under construction, at 399,000 SF across 21 buildings, and fourth in 12-month deliveries, at 104,000 SF.
That pipeline is more than a third of the 1,079,890 SF of retail under construction market-wide. About 259,000 SF of it, or 64.9%, is already pre-leased. The submarket totals 1,795 buildings and about 17.1 million SF.
Demand is now running ahead of new supply. Vacancy is 4.9%, below the 6.0% Inland Empire rate, and net absorption was +240,852 SF over 12 months, fourth of 15. CoStar’s construction ratio for the submarket is 0.4, meaning absorption is running well ahead of new deliveries. Asking rent is $2.40 per SF monthly, up 3.4%, versus $2.29 market-wide.
Recent absorption gains show where tenants are going: a 72,178-SF building at 6348 Mission Blvd that delivered in January 2026 and is fully occupied, and new retailer openings at Deanza Plaza in Jurupa Valley. Tenants weighing Riverside retail space for lease should compare new pre-leased product against older centers where landlords are backfilling.
The four retail sales listed below, on the La Sierra, Tyler and Arlington corridors, traded between $69 and $333 per SF over the past year. Across the submarket, CoStar counts $183.2 million of retail sales in 12 months at a 6.4% market cap rate and $298 per SF.
Those 54 sales ranked sixth in IE retail volume. Recent commercial sales in Riverside:
| Center | Size & Vintage | Price | Date & Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Galleria at Tyler (one building), 3601 Galleria at Tyler | 152,813 SF · built 1991 | $10.5M · $69/SF | Jul 2026 · 0% leased |
| Arlington Retail Center, 3437 Arlington Ave | 49,661 SF · built 2010, renovated 2013 | $16.6M · $333/SF | May 2026 · 7.4% cap rate |
| Five Points Plaza, 4652–4860 La Sierra Ave | 125,217 SF · built 1965, renovated 1989 | $26.4M · $211/SF | Nov 2025 · 100% leased |
| Magnolia Tyler Center, 3700 Tyler St | 81,920 SF · built 1988 | $24M · $293/SF | Oct 2025 · 100% leased |
The fully leased 1988 center on Tyler Street sold for more than four times the per-SF price of the then-vacant 1991 Galleria at Tyler building, and Arlington Retail Center’s 7.4% cap rate sits above CoStar’s 6.4% market rate. Occupancy, more than vintage, drives the gap, so price any Riverside commercial property for sale against true comps, not a submarket average. For a comps-based opinion of value, see our guide to commercial property valuation in the Inland Empire.
If you are buying with exchange proceeds, Apex sources and underwrites 1031 exchange replacement property against comps like these. Apex is not a law, tax or accounting firm; consult your attorney, CPA and qualified intermediary on any exchange.
Government, healthcare, education and the military. The County of Riverside alone employs 24,290 people, and March Air Reserve Base, UC Riverside and Riverside University Health System each employ 8,000 or more, per the City of Riverside’s published top-employer list.
The city counts 319,190 residents (2024 ESRI estimate) and 2.7 million people inside a 20-mile radius. Median household income is $88,404, and 2024 unemployment of 5.3% ran below the county’s 5.9%, per the City’s economic data dashboard.
| Top Public Employers | Employees | Top Private Employers | Employees |
|---|---|---|---|
| County of Riverside | 24,290 | Kaiser Permanente | 5,846 |
| March Air Reserve Base | 9,600 | Riverside Community Hospital | 2,200 |
| University of California, Riverside | 8,593 | Cal Baptist University | 1,442 |
| Riverside University Health System | 8,000 | Collins Aerospace | 1,000 |
Healthcare holds three of the top five private-employer slots. That lines up with CoStar’s note that the IE’s larger office leases come from public service and medical care providers.
SR-91, SR-60 and I-215 cross the city, and regional traffic from I-15 flows through it as well. The City’s General Plan describes SR-91 as a major east-west route reaching the beach cities of Los Angeles County, SR-60 as the connection to downtown Los Angeles, and I-215 as the north-south route to Temecula and San Diego County.
The city has more than 750 miles of surface streets and 30 miles of freeway lanes. Its Circulation and Community Mobility Element expects freight to move mainly by truck, with a substantial share by rail. March Air Reserve Base, second on the City’s list of public employers, sits just outside the city limits.
The industrial trades on this page cluster on Columbia Avenue, in Meridian Business Park and at the Jurupa Valley end of the submarket. Retail center trades ran along La Sierra Avenue, Tyler Street and Arlington Avenue.
Apex represents tenants, landlords, buyers and sellers of industrial, office, retail and land property, and backs each recommendation with sourced data like this page’s.
Engagements are led by Robert Mendieta Jr., CCIM, Associate Broker, Commercial Division, who brings more than 20 years of commercial real estate experience. The closest deal on Apex’s recent transactions is a closed commercial sale at 5570–5578 Mission Blvd in neighboring Jurupa Valley, part of the western Inland Empire that Apex is pushing further into.
It is split by asset type. In CoStar’s Riverside submarket, industrial vacancy is 7.5% after 1,054,652 SF of negative absorption, office vacancy is 5.9% and rising, and retail vacancy is 4.9% while new retail construction leads the region.
CoStar reports 7.5% industrial vacancy in its Riverside submarket as of Q3 2026, below the 8.7% Inland Empire rate, with the second-weakest 12-month net absorption of the 15 IE submarkets. The submarket includes parts of Jurupa Valley, not only the city.
CoStar’s Q3 2026 market asking rents for the Riverside submarket, on a monthly per-SF basis, are $1.07 for industrial, $2.61 for office and $2.40 for retail. Industrial rent is down 0.8% over 12 months; office and retail rents are up. Actual rates vary by building and lease.
Investor activity is high. CoStar counts 52 industrial sales in the Riverside submarket over 12 months, at a 4.9% market cap rate, plus 54 retail sales worth $183.2 million at a 6.4% market cap rate. This is market data, not investment advice.
Less so than a year ago. CoStar puts Riverside office vacancy at 5.9%, up from a record low in 2025, after negative 110,175 SF of 12-month net absorption, the weakest in the Inland Empire. The one building under construction, at 42,640 SF, is fully pre-leased.
SR-91, SR-60 and I-215 cross the city, and the City’s General Plan notes regional through traffic from I-15. SR-91 runs east-west toward Los Angeles County, SR-60 connects to downtown Los Angeles, and I-215 runs north-south toward Temecula and San Diego County.
No. CoStar’s Riverside submarket includes Jurupa Valley addresses, such as Serrano Business Park, where industrial buildings sold in 2026, and the Deanza Plaza retail center, while Riverside-addressed buildings in Meridian Business Park are counted in CoStar’s Moreno Valley/Perris submarket.
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Every figure on this page traces to these sources.
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. Last updated: October 4, 2026. Figures describe CoStar submarkets, not city limits. Apex is not a law, tax or accounting firm; nothing here is legal, tax or investment advice. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
