Inland Empire offers larger cheaper warehouses

First-quarter 2026 data shows the Inland Empire still rents warehouse space more cheaply than Los Angeles County, while offering the region’s biggest large-box footprints. (cbre.com 1) (cbre.com 2) CBRE said Inland Empire asking lease rates averaged $1.09 per square foot per month in Q1 2026. Los Angeles industrial asking rates were higher at $1.21. (cbre.com 1) (cbre.com 2) The Inland Empire also remains the market where very large users can still find scale. CBRE reported 13.6 million square feet of new Inland Empire leases in Q1, up 40.2% from Q4 2025. (cbre.com) That rebound came even as several very large occupiers moved out. CBRE said vacancy in the Inland Empire Core rose 70 basis points to 7.8%, driven by move-outs in buildings of 500,000 square feet and above. (cbre.com) Other broker reports show the same pattern: more available space, softer rents, and continued big-box demand. Colliers said Inland Empire asking rents fell 39% from their Q2 2023 peak, while 53.6 million square feet sat vacant in Q1 2026. (colliers.com) Avison Young put Inland Empire rents at $1.01 per square foot and total availability at 13.7% in Q1 2026. It said recent 1 million-square-foot deals, including Medline’s lease, point to improving big-box tenant sentiment. (avisonyoung.us) Los Angeles County is tighter and closer to dense customer bases, but that comes with less pricing relief. CBRE said Los Angeles vacancy reached 5.4% in Q1 2026, below the Inland Empire Core’s 7.8%, even as Los Angeles asking rents stayed higher. (cbre.com 1) (cbre.com 2) The location tradeoff is old but still decisive: inland buildings are farther from the Los Angeles core, yet they sit on the main freight path from the ports. CBRE says cargo through Los Angeles and Long Beach has historically tracked a meaningful share of leased industrial space across Greater Los Angeles, Orange County, and the Inland Empire. (cbre.com) That is why the Inland Empire keeps showing up in discussions about prototyping, overflow distribution, and expansion. The market is looser than it was in 2022, but the core pitch in 2026 is still simple: more warehouse, at a lower rate, with more room for large users to negotiate. (colliers.com) (cbre.com)