Prologis gets option on 177 more acres in Ontario Ranch

Prologis has scored the option to develop on 177 more acres of land in Ontario Ranch, The Real Deal has learned.

The industrial powerhouse has been granted an option to ground lease the former dairy farm land, adjacent to where the company is already developing more than 8.5 million square feet of industrial and business park space in the master planned neighborhood of Ontario Ranch.

Prologis declined to comment and has not yet filed any development plans with the city to build on the land.

If the company does decide to move forward with this option, Prologis will have more than 550 acres of land across Ontario Ranch — almost one whole square mile, or about 7.5 percent of the entire community.

The city of Ontario has already approved the development of more than 16 million square feet of industrial space, along with about 21,100 single-family and multifamily units.

The new acreage, comprising 22 plots of lands, is located north of Eucalyptus Avenue and between Grove Avenue and South Archibald Avenue. Just south of Eucalyptus is where Prologis is building the Merrill Commerce Center — a 7 million-square-foot industrial development with a 1.4 million-square-foot business park across 376 acres.

The owner of the land is Mary Borba-Parente, the sister of the late John Borba, who ran a sprawling dairy farm in Ontario and founded Chino Valley Bank, now known as Citizens Business Bank, a prominent lender in the Inland Empire and other parts of Southern California.

It’s not the first time Prologis has struck a deal with the Borba family. In April 2021, the firm bought 39 parcels of dairy farm land for the family for $60 million — plots that will eventually make up some of the Merrill Commerce Center.

Prologis has already signed Home Depot to two spec buildings at the development, before construction has even started.

At Merrill, the company is also building a 4.1 million-square-foot, five-story warehouse structure, with four floors dedicated to robotics. That building is expected to be taken up by Amazon, once it opens next year.