Construction crews broke ground the week of August 31 on a 282,435-square-foot industrial park just off Rancho Cordova Parkway and Gold Dredge Way, marking VanTrust Real Estate's entry into the Sacramento market. The three-building project, called Rio Del Oro Business Park, sits on 18.72 acres and is aimed squarely at local and regional businesses hunting for space in the 15,000 to 50,000-square-foot range — a size category developers say has been in short supply.
According to citybiz, the development will include three Class A shallow-bay buildings totaling 112,825, 103,690, and 65,920 square feet respectively, with suites starting at approximately 15,600 square feet and the option to combine units for larger tenants. Each building will feature both dock-high and grade-level loading, dedicated truck courts, and the project as a whole will provide 360 parking spaces. Kansas City-based VanTrust — a company representing roughly $9 billion in development and acquisitions across industrial, office, multifamily, mixed-use, and science and technology properties — has developed more than 80 million square feet of real estate nationwide.
Mark Demetre, part of the leasing team alongside Nathan Miller and Michael Hoo, said tenants in this size range have had few new options even as demand has held steady. Tyler Williams echoed that read on the market, saying VanTrust is delivering modern space in sizes growing companies are asking for while adding to Rancho Cordova's roster of local employers, per the same citybiz report.
A Tight Corridor Along Highway 50
The timing lines up with what regional brokers have been tracking for months. The Sacramento industrial market posted an overall vacancy rate of 6.0% in the second quarter of 2026, but submarket vacancy along the Highway 50 corridor in Rancho Cordova — where Rio Del Oro sits — was far tighter at just 4.1%, according to CBRE. That scarcity of shallow-bay space is part of why VanTrust's mid-sized suite strategy has drawn attention from local leasing agents.
Rio Del Oro Business Park will offer access to Interstate 5, Interstate 80, Sacramento International Airport, and Sacramento Mather Airport, positioning it as a logistics-friendly site for companies serving the broader Sacramento region. That connectivity matters more than usual right now: air cargo volume handled at Sacramento International Airport surged nearly 14 percent year-over-year in 2025 and climbed another 30 percent annually in early 2026, according to Marcus & Millichap, fueling demand for regional distribution centers and flex warehouse space near the airport corridor.
Built on Former Aerojet Land
The business park is part of the Rio Del Oro Specific Plan, a roughly 3,828-acre master-planned community that stands as the largest development in Rancho Cordova's history, envisioned to eventually include more than 11,000 homes, 7.6 million square feet of commercial and industrial space, and a 130-acre regional park, according to Meyers Nave. The land was historically used by Aerojet Rocketdyne for rocket engine testing, requiring extensive environmental remediation and specific land-use entitlements before the site could be cleared for the mixed-use community now rising in its place.
The Rancho Cordova Planning Commission approved a Major Design Review for the business park on January 28, determining the project was exempt from a detailed individual CEQA impact review under state guidelines because of its consistency with the already-established community plan, per city records. VanTrust reportedly acquired the 18.72-acre site within the Rio Del Oro master plan in late 2025, meaning construction started less than a year after the land purchase closed. The project team includes Wood Rodgers as civil engineer, HPA Architecture as designer, and Uprite Construction as general contractor — the same contractor Trader Joe's hired for its $48 million cold-storage expansion at its Rancho Cordova logistics campus, as Hoodline reported in December.
Part of a Broader Warehouse Boom — and Its Friction
Rio Del Oro is the latest sign of industrial momentum along the Highway 50 corridor, but warehouse growth in Rancho Cordova hasn't come without tension. In February, a Sacramento County Superior Court judge ordered the city to issue building permits for Dermody Properties' 155,000-square-foot LogistiCenter project near Mather Airport after a legal dispute over permit delays, a fight Hoodline covered in detail when neighbors pushed back on warehouse permits. Local residents and air quality advocates had raised concerns over truck traffic near residential zones in that case.
VanTrust has been expanding its industrial footprint well beyond Sacramento this year, breaking ground in August on a 512,000-square-foot speculative park in McKinney, Texas, and a 1-million-square-foot facility in Lockbourne, Ohio. The broader labor market backdrop looks favorable for the bet: the Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom metro area posted a 4.2% unemployment rate in May, outperforming California's statewide rate of 4.7%, with growth anchored by trade, logistics, and health services, according to Kidder Mathews. Rio Del Oro Business Park is expected to be completed by summer 2027.
