Industry-funded study finds warehouse land is 23% of the IE economy — more than any other part of SoCal
The report, released June 23, measures the economy that physically sits on industrial and flex land across the four-county region. The coastal version of the land-use debate treats warehouse parcels as low-value and convertible — land better spent on housing or retail. Run the same numbers inland and the framing inverts.
By the study's count, industrial tenants directly support about 548,000 jobs and $62.5 billion in GDP across the Inland Empire. The Western IE subregion alone — the logistics core running from Ontario and Fontana out through Moreno Valley and Perris — supports more than 520,000 jobs and roughly $63 billion in value added, which the authors call the single largest industrial concentration anywhere in Southern California, ahead of the City of Los Angeles.
The wage finding is the one that cuts hardest against the local political grain. Industrial space in the IE pays an average of about $64,000 a year, against a county-wide all-industry average of $57,000 — roughly 14% higher. Warehousing alone accounts for more than 112,000 IE jobs at an average near $62,000, also above the regional average. The coastal counties show the opposite pattern, where industrial work pays below a county average lifted by office and headquarters employment the IE doesn't have. In other words, the sector cities are braking is the one paying above the local mean.
Beacon founder Christopher Thornberg's central argument is that the cost of converting industrial land never shows up on a single parcel's tax roll — it accrues to the region as supplier networks and labor pools that, once dispersed, can't be reassembled. The paper names AB 98 and South Coast AQMD's warehouse rule as the specific policies raising that risk.
The funding belongs in plain view. The research was supported by the Supply Chain Federation, NAIOP SoCal, NAIOP Inland Empire, and the County of San Bernardino — the county and the industry both have a direct stake in the conclusion that converting or downzoning this land carries a hidden regional cost. Beacon states it designed the analysis and reached its conclusions independently. For operators and developers watching Perris-style moratoria spread and large-format approvals pivot to retail, the white paper is the most quantified version yet of the argument for holding the line — and it arrives with its sponsors' names attached.
One caveat on the geography: the model's "Inland Empire" and "Western IE" units are built from ZIP codes, not city or county lines, so the subregional splits don't map cleanly onto Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The direction is solid; the precise borders are the study's, not the assessor's.