Inland Empire vacancy hits 7.8%
- CBRE said Inland Empire Core industrial vacancy rose to 7.8% in the first quarter of 2026 as large tenant move-outs outweighed stronger leasing. - New leasing reached 13.6 million square feet, but four separate 1 million-square-foot buildings went vacant and net absorption ranked among the market’s weakest quarters. - Southern California landlords are cutting rents and taking weaker spreads as big-box supply stays loose. (cbre.com)
Inland Empire industrial vacancy climbed to 7.8% in the first quarter of 2026 after a wave of large move-outs hit the market. (cbre.com) CBRE said vacancy in the Inland Empire Core rose 70 basis points in the quarter, driven by tenants giving back blocks of 500,000 square feet and larger across both submarkets. (cbre.com) Leasing did not disappear. CBRE counted 13.6 million square feet of new deals in Q1, up 40.2% from 9.7 million square feet in Q4 2025 and 15.3% above Q1 2025. (cbre.com) The problem was concentration. Colliers said four different 1 million-square-foot buildings went vacant in a single quarter for the first time on record. (colliers.com) Colliers put Inland Empire vacancy at 8.1% marketwide, with 53.6 million square feet sitting vacant, while Cushman & Wakefield pegged the overall market at 8.5%, showing how broad the softening has become beyond CBRE’s core measure. (colliers.com) (cushmanwakefield.com) Rents are still resetting lower. CBRE said Inland Empire Core asking rents averaged $1.09 per square foot per month in Q1 2026, while Avison Young said market rents across the region had fallen 35.7% from the 2023 peak to $1.01. (cbre.com) (avisonyoung.us) That pressure is showing up in landlord results. Rexford Industrial said comparable rental rates on Q1 leases fell 15.4% on a cash basis, or 1.8% excluding a previously disclosed 1.1 million-square-foot Tireco renewal. (rexfordindustrial.com) Across Greater Los Angeles, Colliers said industrial asking rents were down 8.1% from a year earlier in Q1, with net absorption at negative 2.4 million square feet after Inland Empire losses outweighed gains in Los Angeles County and Orange County. (colliers.com) There are still signs of demand in the biggest boxes. Avison Young pointed to a new 1 million-plus-square-foot lease by Medline Industries and said touring activity improved in Q1 even as decision timelines stayed long. (avisonyoung.us) For now, the Inland Empire is absorbing two markets at once: active leasing on one side, and a handful of giant vacancies that can move quarterly numbers by themselves. (cbre.com) (colliers.com)
