For immediate release
July 29, 2016

The City of Moreno Valley, Highland Fairview, the County of Riverside and the Riverside County Transportation Commission (RCTC) have come to an agreement supporting development of the World Logistics Center project.

“We all understood that Logistics plays a vital role in our regional economy but lacked the necessary funding strategy to ensure that impacts are properly managed for all projects," said Moreno Valley Mayor Yxstian Gutierrez. The City believes that this cooperative agreement will not only provide for important transportation improvements in the region but also set a new standard for future developments to follow. “I am pleased we could all partner to support an industry that will create thousands of new jobs for the entire region,” added Mayor Gutierrez.

Emphasizing collaboration and the importance of a regional approach to managing transportation impacts, the City, Highland Fairview, the County and the RCTC have agreed to partner and jointly fund a $1,000,000 regional transportation study to establish a logistics-related regional transportation fee to help mitigate traffic impacts created by future logistics projects in the County. Highland Fairview will pay the City’s costs for this effort.

The agreement will set a new precedent for a logistics development transportation mitigation fee in the region. Even before the fee is in place, Highland Fairview will pay 65 cents per square foot of building area as each building is completed to fund logistics related regional transportation improvement projects. The funds and improvement projects will be managed by the RCTC.

“This agreement is another important milestone for our region,” said Mayor Gutierrez. “I commend the County and the RCTC for their leadership in helping forge this comprehensive and forward-looking agreement.”

Highland Fairview has also agreed to contribute $3 million for Highway 60 transportation studies and improvements, $2 million of which will be used for engineering studies and improvements for SR-60 between I-215 and Gilman Springs Road and the remaining $1 million will be used toward improvements on the Theodore Street interchange at SR-60.

Highland Fairview has also agreed to widen Gilman Springs Road to improve its safety and capacity. The City, County and Highland Fairview will work together to determine the best alignment and configuration for Gilman Springs Road. Highland Fairview has also agreed to contribute $200,000 for logistics-related studies to be conducted by the Center for Environmental Research and Technology at UC Riverside as well as public health research to be done by the Community Translational Research Institute.

John Husing, a widely recognized authority on the Inland Southern California economy, estimates that the World Logistics Center will generate $2.5 billion in annual economic activity and create more than 20,000 local jobs.

Meanwhile, the logistics sector remains integral to the nation’s primacy in the global economy. Global flows of goods, services and finance are projected to reach as high as $85 trillion by 2025, according to McKinsey & Company. Trade will also account for 60 percent of all goods and services produced in the United States, according to a projection by Global Insight U.S. Macroeconomic Forecasting Service.

Master-planned by Highland Fairview, the World Logistics Center is a world-class business park specifically designed to support the requirements of a large global companies and their logistics and e-commerce operations. The business park will encompass more than 40 million square feet of next-generation logistics facilities, creating one of the largest and most advanced logistics centers in the country. Its 2,610-acre campus will be one of the most sustainable developments of its kind, incorporating ground-breaking design to ensure minimal impact on both people and the environment.

The development of the World Logistics Center builds on Highland Fairview’s development of the 1.8 million square foot building housing Skechers’ USA North American distribution center. The Center is not only recognized as an architectural icon in the industry, it also has been lauded for its innovative approach to sustainable design, earning LEED Gold certification by the United States Green Building Council, the largest building of its kind to ever receive such a distinction.

The County and the RCTC had previously filed lawsuits challenging the City’s approval of the World Logistics Center. All of these lawsuits will now be dismissed in light of the agreement.