Giant Lowe’s Distribution Center Takes Shape

Fast-growing home improvement retailer Lowe’s Cos. has launched construction on one of the largest single-story buildings erected in California--a 1.25-million-square-foot distribution center on a former sod farm in the Riverside County city of Perris.

The North Wilkesboro, N.C.-based company, which is aggressively expanding into Western markets, selected the 100-acre site just off Interstate 215 after an extensive search for a center from which to feed the more than 100 stores it has planned for Southern California, Nevada and Arizona, said real estate broker Gary Blum of Lee & Associates, who helped Lowe’s conduct the search and negotiate the property purchase.

Contractor J.D. Diffenbaugh of Riverside is fast-tracking construction of the $78-million building--which is more than 2,000 feet long--in an effort to get it operational by mid-2001. Lowe’s expects to employ about 600 at the facility.

Freeway proximity was a key factor in selecting the site, as was the lower cost compared with more densely developed parts of the Inland Empire, Blum said. Inland Empire land prices--especially in and around the Ontario distribution hub--rose steadily as Lowe’s conducted its search, which began in mid-1998.

“I’d say over the last year the price of larger land parcels is up 20%, and that’s pushing things farther east,” Blum said.

The few large parcels available for development in the Ontario vicinity frequently command prices of $4 or more per square foot. In Perris and Moreno Valley, prices are typically less than $1.50 per square foot.

The I-215 corridor has also attracted Philips Electronics North America, which will operate a 225,000-square-foot distribution center now under construction on 14 acres within the March Air Reserve Base.

Lowe’s considered sites throughout the Inland Empire as far east as the Victor Valley, Blum said. Lowe’s bought the Perris property from the Coudures family, represented by Eric Kroencke of the Ashley-Kroencke real estate firm.