Ontario industrial building to get larger

An industrial building in Ontario is about to undergo a major renovation.

Shea Properties announced recently that it will add 124,250 square feet to one of its five buildings at Shea Ontario Center, according to report originally published in The Press-Enterprise.

Voit Commercial Ontario is leasing the 1.6-million-square-foot logistics operation at 5400 Shea Center Drive.

The expansion, which is being made in expectation of a greater demand for industrial space in the Inland Empire, will give the project better access to Interstate 10, according to the report.

Shea Properties is based in Aliso Viejo. It develops and manages commercial and real estate projects in California and Colorado and currently manages a $2.4 billion portfolio of industrial, retail, apartment and office properties, according to the company’s website.

One major real estate organization is predicting that 2014 will be a good year for industrial development, and the Inland Empire should get its share of the projects that come on line during that time.

NAIOP, the Virginia-based commercial real estate trade group, is predicting that net absorption of industrial space in the United States could top 250 million square feet this year.

That growth would be caused in part by higher employment and an expected return to three percent growth in GDP, both of which will help boost the national retail sector and create more demand for storing goods, according to a NAIOP forecast released this month.