JPMorgan makes Inland Empire’s biggest Q2 industrial buy for $180M

JPMorgan isn’t dipping its toes in the industrial market — it’s diving head first with an $180 million warehouse buy in the Inland Empire.

The investment bank bought a 459,000-square-foot warehouse in the San Bernardino County city of Ontario from Irvine-based JW Mitchell Company for about $392 per square foot, according to a report from brokerage Lee & Associates.

JPMorgan declined to comment on the deal. Property records filed with San Bernardino County confirm JPMorgan was the buyer of the property.

The sale was the biggest industrial deal to trade in the Inland Empire during the second quarter, according to the report. The second-most expensive deal was TA Realty’s $134 million purchase of a 390,000-square-foot warehouse in Riverside.

Located at 5555 Jurupa Street, the property is currently occupied by two tenants — Liberty Hardware, which makes hooks and handles for homes; and Ceva Logistics, the French logistics and supply chain company.

JPMorgan has invested in the Inland Empire since the 1990s, according to public property records. In 1997, the bank’s predecessor Morgan Guaranty Trust bought a 25-acre plot of industrial real estate leased to Chief Auto Parts at Philadelphia Avenue and South Wineville Avenue in Ontario.

JPMorgan has held onto that property since then, which is now a 490,000-square-foot distribution warehouse leased to AutoZone, a successor to Chief Auto Parts, public records show.

Since then, JPMorgan hasn’t made many large investments in industrial in the Inland Empire, which has attracted almost every other investment bank and asset manager during the last two years.

The firm is financing the development of a 1.7 million-square-foot industrial development in the master planned project of Ontario Ranch. JPMorgan provided a $210 million, three-year loan to Clarion Partners and Real Estate Development Associates to start construction on the first phase of the project.