The retail giant bought a Southern California cold storage facility it has leased since 2010
Walmart just made a significant real estate move in Southern California, spending $223 million to purchase a cold storage facility it has been leasing for more than 15 years. Walmart Realty, a subsidiary of the retail giant, acquired the 507,000-square-foot temperature-controlled distribution property located at 1001 Columbia Ave. in Riverside, California, from State Street Corporation. The deal works out to roughly $440 per square foot.
Walmart has operated out of the facility since 2010 and will continue using it for grocery and food distribution following the acquisition. The decision to buy rather than continue leasing reflects a strategic commitment to the location as a long-term anchor in the company’s Southern California supply chain.
Why this facility matters for Walmart’s supply chain
The Riverside property sits in California’s Inland Empire region, less than four miles from Interstate 215, California State Route 60 and California State Route 91, giving it direct access to the transportation corridors that serve the greater Los Angeles basin. For a company distributing groceries and temperature-sensitive food products across one of the most populated regions in the country, that kind of positioning is difficult to replicate.
Cold storage facilities of this scale are increasingly scarce across Southern California. Demand for temperature-controlled logistics infrastructure has consistently outpaced available supply in the region, making existing large-format properties like the Riverside facility more valuable over time. By converting from tenant to owner, Walmart eliminates lease renewal risk on a property that would be nearly impossible to replace at comparable size and location.
JLL represented Walmart in the acquisition, with the deal team including Scott Coyle, Peter McWilliams and Tim O’Rourke. Jomar Benoit, Walmart’s senior manager of industrial real estate, was also instrumental in finalizing the transaction. The seller, State Street Corporation, was represented by Eastdil Secured.
The broader picture for cold storage real estate
The Walmart deal is a signal of just how tight the cold storage market has become in Southern California. The Inland Empire has long served as a critical hub for the region’s food distribution ecosystem, sitting at the geographic crossroads between major highway systems and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. As retailers and food distributors compete for limited temperature-controlled space, owning rather than leasing has become an increasingly attractive strategy for companies with long-term commitments to specific locations.
For Walmart, the acquisition locks in a facility that has been central to its California distribution network for a decade and a half. The move also fits a broader pattern among major retailers investing in owned logistics infrastructure as supply chain resilience has become a higher priority following the disruptions of recent years.
The $223 million price tag reflects both the scarcity premium attached to large cold storage properties in the Los Angeles basin and the strategic value of a facility that is already embedded in an active distribution operation with years of operational history behind it.