The #SanBernardino #AmazonAir fight made clear that #Hillwood has successfully and strategically co-opted the language of “community benefits” just enough to give good press to their local elected official partners but not enough to make a difference for any wage workers or air quality.

IMO it was also a lesson in the total uselessness of federal and state environmental review processes for proposed land uses. Feels like playing a rigged game of whack-a-mole.

6/

#Hillwood is also the property developer for the old Norton Air Force Base in #SanBernardino (down the road from Fontana). In 2019–2020, a large coalition of community organizers based in San Bernardino came together to fight for a #CommunityBenefitsAgreement for an air cargo facility that Hillwood announced would be built there. The tenant was unnamed, but everyone knew it was going to be #Amazon.

4/

I was devastated to learn this week that property developer #Hillwood is purchasing the #Fontana, CA, Speedway. The plan is to build a 6.6 million sq ft warehouse complex. (That’s 61 ha, or 75% the size of Central Park NYC.)

Logistics developments in the #InlandEmpire #SouthernCalifornia are getting more and more massive. In the mid-2010s it was still a big deal for #Amazon to be building warehouses of 1 million sq ft. Multiple new developments are 4+ million sq ft.

https://commercialobserver.com/2023/02/calif-auto-club-speedway-hillwood-544m-logistics/

1/