Goodman Birtcher's Billion

Yesterday, Goodman Birtcher CEO Brandy Birtcher told us where exactly the company would be putting $1.4B. (We suggested Target. He said it was for industrial development. So we suggested he build a Target warehouse, then shop at it.)

Brandy (right, with colleague Shannon Hondl and Rancho Cucamonga mayor pro tem Sam Spagnolo) tells us the $150M Goodman Logistics Center Rancho Cucamonga is part of a 15M SF US development pipeline, roughly half of which is in SoCal, with an end value of $1.4B over the next three years. Goodman Birtcher, a wholly owned subsidiary of Australia's Goodman Group, has a build-to-core approach focusing on large sites for multi-phase projects. That said, it also has a infill strategy for high-density industrial markets, having just bought five acres in Compton to build a 102k SF building.

Regional director Southwest Lang Cottrell, right, with Lee & Associates Ontario's Bill Heim, says the Goodman Logistics Center Rancho Cucamonga will consist of a pair of spec buildings totaling 1.6M SF. Bill and colleagues Eloy Covarrubias and Joseph Werdein sourced the 75-acre site and serve as the listing brokers. The cross-dock facilities—555k and 1M SF, with 36-foot clear heights and 185-foot truck courts—are slated for completion in March and May 2015. (It'll take that long to find truck judges for truck court.) They're actively being marketed, with consumer products, e-commerce and 3PLs among the likely customers.

Goodman Birtcher, with the Lee team, used the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana to launch this first wave of SoCal development. The event's theme: Off to the Races. (You thought Sydney Drift, perhaps?) After several years researching the North American market, the Australian firm jumpstarted things in June 2012 by acquiring Birtcher Development & Investments, Brandy's 75-year-old family real estate company. Over the past 24 months, the company kept quiet about its land acquisitions as it amassed a portfolio of Class-A development sites in high-absorption markets in California, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.

Now, the project announcements are coming fast and furious. Others on Goodman Birtcher's 343-acre plate in SoCal include: a 639K logistics facility in Fontana; a three-building, 1.2M SF warehouse distribution complex in Santa Fe Springs; and a 3.7M SF mixed-use development in Eastvale. In his spare time, Lang's passion is fishing—if it swims, he'll pursue it (though mainly catch-and-release). Folks who know Brandy know he has a tough time sitting still, but he loves the outdoors and sports.