The sprawling Lincoln Heights campus that once housed Forever 21's corporate headquarters sat largely empty after the fast-fashion retailer's fortunes collapsed. Now it has two very different new occupants: Amazon has bought two of its three buildings, while LA28, the organization running the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, has leased the third for office and warehouse space.
The 39-acre campus at 3930 Mission Road in Lincoln Heights most recently served as Forever 21's corporate home, according to Bisnow. Amazon purchased what marketing materials describe as Buildings 2 and 3, which together total approximately 500,000 square feet, the outlet reports. Building 2 is advertised as a 224,000-square-foot warehouse with about 11 acres of industrial outdoor storage, while Building 3 offers roughly 279,000 square feet of newly renovated warehouse space.
Public records cited by the outlet indicate Amazon paid $9.52 million in Measure ULA transfer taxes on the deal, which points to a $146.2 million sale price. Amazon declined to comment on what it plans to do with the two buildings, leaving its intentions for the site unconfirmed.
LA28 Moves Into the Old Forever 21 Offices
The remaining structure on the site, a 667,000-square-foot flex office building known as Building 1, has been leased to LA28 for a 28-month term. The space includes both office and warehouse areas and was previously used as Forever 21's corporate offices, per the same reporting.
It is not the Olympics organizer's first big real estate move in the city. LA28 also leased 160,000 square feet of office space at 1150 S. Olive St. in Downtown Los Angeles in 2025, the outlet's report notes. Other Olympics-linked entities have been active in the downtown office market too: On Location, which sells ticket packages for the 2028 Games, leased office space at the former Union Bank Plaza, though reported figures for that deal vary, with Bisnow citing 108,000 square feet and CoStar putting the lease at 100,000 square feet.
Who Owned the Site Before
Newland Capital Group and Related Fund Management bought the former Forever 21 property last year from a Blackstone and Worthe Real Estate Group joint venture for $120 million, the report states. CBRE had been marketing the site for sale, lease or build-to-suit projects before the new deals came together.
Why Amazon Keeps Buying Up Warehouses
The Lincoln Heights purchase fits into a much bigger push by Amazon to build out its same-day delivery network. The company is growing its same-day facilities network to more than 1,000 locations by 2031, up from around 85 today, according to the same Bisnow report. Amazon is also expected to increase its U.S. warehouse footprint by 51 million square feet, up from 39 million square feet in 2025.
That expansion goes well beyond Los Angeles. As reported by Business Insider, Amazon aims to place same-day fulfillment centers within a 10-mile straight-line radius of 80% of its U.S. Prime subscribers by 2031, backed by a three-year operating plan that budgets $6.8 billion for same-day fulfillment capacity across 2026 and 2027. The company's internal finance review estimated the expansion could generate $7.1 billion in economic value over a decade and turn cash-flow positive by 2030, though Business Insider notes Amazon has cautioned that these projections are preliminary and subject to significant revision.
Amazon has been making similar moves elsewhere. Per the Modesto Bee, the company signed a 10-year lease earlier this year for a 316,800-square-foot same-day fulfillment facility in north Modesto, built in 2022. And in Louisiana, Amazon opened its first same-day delivery site in the state at a 150,000-square-foot facility in Elmwood near New Orleans, according to NOLA.com, which reports the site employs more than 80 people using advanced robotics. That property was originally purchased in 2021 to serve as an offsite parking lot before Amazon converted its planned use to same-day delivery.
A Broader Industrial Boom
The Lincoln Heights deal also lands amid a surge in national industrial real estate activity. Industrial leasing activity reached 175.7 million square feet in the second quarter of 2026, up 49.4% year over year and 20.9% quarter over quarter, according to JLL. Net absorption nearly doubled from the first quarter to 99.1 million square feet, while the national vacancy rate compressed to 6.8%.
Big-box leasing, defined as spaces of at least 500,000 square feet, climbed 58.3% year over year in the same quarter, JLL reports, even as industrial construction activity grew 9.2% year over year to 276 million square feet under way nationally. Against that backdrop, Amazon's purchase of roughly half a million square feet in Lincoln Heights looks like one piece of a much larger national buildout, even as the company keeps its specific plans for the Mission Road buildings to itself.
