After years of sitting quiet, a long-vacant industrial building at 13711 Freeway Drive in Santa Fe Springs is getting a second act. Co-warehousing operator WareSpace has bought the 1965-era property and plans to carve it into dozens of small warehouse units aimed squarely at local small businesses.
The Maryland-based company paid $15.8 million for the site and says it will roll out units ranging from roughly 250 to 2,000 square feet. The building sits on a freeway-adjacent lot near the I-5/91/605 interchange, a spot the firm pitches as a sweet spot for east-to-west and last-mile operators. The deal extends WareSpace’s West Coast reach as it pursues micro-bay conversions in some of Southern California’s tightest industrial submarkets.
Deal Details
According to a press release via PR Newswire, WareSpace paid $15.8 million for the roughly 82,193-square-foot building and plans to redesign the interior as a flexible warehouse campus expected to serve more than 100 small businesses. The company says the project will feature units from 250 to 2,000 square feet.
The release also includes comments from co-founders Joseph Ely and Levi Cohen highlighting a shortage of modern small-bay industrial options in Southern California. This Santa Fe Springs buy marks WareSpace’s 25th location nationwide and its second Southern California acquisition, following a December 2025 deal in Orange County.
Why the Mid-Counties?
Industrial reports show the Mid-Counties corridor is still tight on space, with limited new construction and steady leasing keeping small-bay availabilities scarce. Per Voit Real Estate Services’ Q1 2026 market report, Mid-Counties vacancy hovered around 5.9 percent in the first quarter, with Santa Fe Springs closer to 4.5 percent.
Those figures help explain the appeal of converting older single-tenant buildings into multi-tenant layouts. The same Voit report points to a thin development pipeline, which can make repositioning existing properties into multi-tenant small-bay space more attractive than starting from scratch.
What WareSpace Offers Small Businesses
WareSpace markets itself as a one-stop operator for entrepreneurs who want move-in-ready bays, loading docks and shared amenities, according to the company’s website. The company’s California strategy has already drawn attention. The Real Deal reported on WareSpace’s January Santa Ana purchase and noted that the firm typically converts aging warehouses into dozens of micro-units with simpler, short-term leases.
That operating model is pitched as a way to lower the barrier for local e-commerce outfits, trades businesses and service providers that need professional industrial space without committing to traditional long-term, full-building leases.
Site History And Local Context
The property at 13711 Freeway Drive has been on the city’s radar for redevelopment for years. A 2023 environmental study and entitlement package shows that Rexford Industrial previously floated a plan to replace the older structure. The study is posted on the City of Santa Fe Springs website, and the property listing on Rexford Industrial records past plans for the site, which helps explain why the building sat empty prior to the WareSpace sale.
Sticking with the existing shell rather than pursuing a full teardown can be a faster and more workable approach in a corridor where land is tight and ground-up industrial development is limited.
Next Steps
WareSpace’s release did not offer a firm move-in timeline for tenants, according to the company’s statement to the press. In its Santa Ana conversion, the firm closed in January and told The Real Deal that the renovated site was expected to open later in the year, suggesting a multi-month gap between acquisition and occupancy.
For Santa Fe Springs, public filings and local permitting will ultimately dictate when small businesses get the keys.
