Last year’s blockbuster $559 million sale of the roughly 630-acre Auto Club Speedway site in Southern California's Inland Empire set a new high-water mark for industrial land deals in the United States.
The story is still being written for the site as the new owners, Hillwood and CBRE Investment Management, plan the next chapter for the property that was the West Coast’s only steel mill before being converted to a NASCAR race track in the 1990s.
The new owners are making headway on a major logistics development called Speedway Commerce Center on 364 acres, with approvals for up to 6.6 million square feet of logistics space. The first phase totaling 1.8 million square feet began construction last year.
Corion Properties brokered the deal on behalf of the seller, NASCAR parent company International Speedway, and called the deal the largest and highest priced industrial land transaction in the United States ever completed, earning it a 2024 CoStar Impact Award, as judged by real estate professionals familiar with the market.
About the project: Corion represented NASCAR in the $559 million sale of the Auto Club Speedway with total consideration topping $800 million.
What the judges said: "As industrial buildings have become taller and taller in recent years with modern cutting-edge functions, power, and technology, it is impressive that this class A warehouse project with access to the BNSF lines is pushing for a new height of 40-foot clear heights,” said Lynn Yangchana of MGR Real Estate. “This project will be a showcase for IE as the forefront of the nation’s logistic hub."
They made it happen: Corion’s team involved in the deal includes CEO and Founder Fred Cordova; Chief Investment Strategist Ravi Choudhry; Executive Vice President Al Grazioli; and Associate Vice President JoAnn Horeni. CBRE Investment Management’s Mary Lang, head of Americas Ddrect Logistics Strategies, represented the buyers along with Hillwood Executive Vice President Scott Morse and Senior Vice President John Magness.