Amazon signs 1.2M sf industrial lease in North Bay

Amazon.com has swung back into the Bay Area’s industrial market as a renter in a big way, taking a 1.2-million-square-foot building at a logistics hub in Vacaville.

The e-commerce company will take space at 920 Eubanks Drive in Vacaville, the San Francisco Business Times reported, accounting for about 75 percent of the space at the Midway Commerce Center.

Natalie Banke, a spokesperson for Amazon, confirmed the company’s lease to the publication; she did not offer any other details.

The deal pays off a speculative bet that Atlanta-based developer Ridgeline Property Group made on the Midway Commerce Center. Ridgeline and capital partner USAA Real Estate started the project in February and now have two smaller buildings available for lease.

Amazon’s decision to take the lion’s share of the speculative development marks a resumption of sorts. Amazon was a major player as buyer and renter in the industrial sector in recent years, as the pandemic sparked a boom for shipping facilities to meet demand for deliveries.The trend pushed industrial vacancy rates to record lows in the Bay Area and other markets nationally.

By 2022, demand ebbed and Amazon said it would cut back on its investments in industrial projects, citing excess space. The company has subleased some warehouse space in the Bay Area and elsewhere, but remained opportunistic in fine tuning its portfolio.

The lease in Vacaville gives Amazon a major presence in Solano County, a section of the North Bay where a group of tech billionaires have announced plans to develop a new city from scratch on farm lands near Travis Air Force Base.

– Jerry Sullivan