1.23 million-square-foot warehouse, North Bay’s biggest, takes shape in Solano County

A warehouse project in Vacaville set for completion later this year is set to have the largest amount of commercial space under a single roof in the six-county region.

The roof was half-complete as of Monday on the largest of three buildings at the 1.53 million-square-foot Midway Commerce Center project on nearly 90 acres west of Eubanks Drive and south of Midway Drive. The first two buildings are set for completion within five months, according to Brooks Pedder, part of the Cushman & Wakefield team marketing the project.

At more than one-third of a mile long, Building C is a 1.23 million-square-foot cross-loading logistics facility that can hold the equivalent of 21 NFL fields. Sitting on 69.5 acres, it will have 209 insulated truck trailer dock doors and outdoor parking initially for 318 trailers and and 630 automobiles.

The largest North Bay commercial building up to this point has been the 823,000-square-foot former Savemart distribution center in the Northbay Logistics Center property across Eubanks to the east. A 744,000-square-foot warehouse was completed last year in Napa Logitics Center in American Canyon. A 1 million-square-foot warehouse at Napa Logistics Center had been planned, but Amazon opted instead for a 205,000-square-foot delivery center with ample parking for over 1,000 vans.

Elsewhere in California, a warehouse of about the same size as Building C at Midway is underway in Stockton, and Amazon last year proposed to build a 4.3 million-square-foot distribution center in Southern California.

In Napa and Solano counties, available warehouse space of much size has been scant. At year-end, an unusually small proportion of space was vacant — 0.9% of 56.3 million square feet of existing space in the two counties, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

“Demand is strong because we do not have product,” Pedder said about available real estate. “We’ve been waiting for product for almost a year now. Low vacancy has made it tough to make deals.”

Because of strong demand for warehouse space in the North Bay in the past few years, preleasing of space before project completion has been common. While no deals are finalized at Midway so far, there have been active inquiries, Pedder said.

One of the last significant spaces in Napa—Solano was spoken for late last year, when St. John’s Transportation leased the remaining 103,000-square-foot warehouse at the three-building complex Panattoni Development finished and sold last year at 4550-4750 Business Center Drive in Fairfield’s Green Valley Corporate Park.

At Midway’s Building B, the concrete walls were tilted up into position on Monday for the 198,500-square-food warehouse with 35 truck docs and parking for 159 vehicles.

Buildings B and C have 42-foot internal clear height, allowing higher vertical stacking of inventory. Building B has 52-foot column spacing, and Building C 56 feet. The roof has rigid R-19 insulation.

The developer of the project is Ridgeline Property Group, with capital and investment partner USAA Real Estate.

Still to be built is Building A, a nearly 106,000-square-foot warehouse on nearly 9 acres. It is designed to have 32-foot interior clear height.

The project general contractor is Fullmer Construction based in Ontario, California, with an office in Sacramento. HPA Architecture designed the project.

Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction and real estate. Before coming to the Business Journal in 1999, he wrote for Bay City News Service in San Francisco. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.

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