A sprawling new industrial building at the Port of Nevada in Fernley is officially done and open for business, with 25 loading docks, four drive-in doors and direct rail access that developers say sets it apart from anything else on the market. The 238,680-square-foot structure was built by Industrial Realty Group in partnership with ARCO National Construction, and as of Tuesday it stands fully constructed with no tenant yet announced.
The completion was confirmed in a joint announcement from Port of Nevada and ARCO, picked up by StreetInsider, which described the building as fully constructed and ready for tenants. According to the release, the facility includes 50-foot-by-54-foot column spacing and sits on U.S. Highway 50 near Interstate 80, with connections to U.S. Highway 95 — a location the companies say provides access to regional customers and western distribution routes.
Back in March, the same project was still being described in terms of estimates, with the space projected to be ready for occupancy sometime in fall 2026, according to PR Newswire. That timeline appears to have held, with the November announcement confirming construction is now complete rather than merely on track.
Rail Links to Oakland and a Built-In Freight Operation
What makes the Fernley site distinctive, according to the companies, is what surrounds the new building rather than the building itself. The Port of Nevada is dual-served by Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway and offers direct intermodal connectivity to the Port of Oakland, per the same PR Newswire release. On-site capabilities include rail switching, transloading, container handling and commodity storage, with that storage covering liquids, dry bulk and dimensional materials.
IRG executive Justin Lichter said the project brings industrial space and freight services together at one location, giving businesses more operational and goods-movement flexibility. Lichter added that the turnkey solution does not currently exist in the market and offers on-site companies a competitive edge, according to the announcement. ARCO's Jenna Martini said the company is proud to partner with IRG on the facility and believes its design, rail access and Northern Nevada location offer expansion opportunities.
The pitch to prospective tenants leans heavily on cost savings tied to that rail access. Shorter local truck trips combined with rail transport to Oakland can lower transportation costs and reduce exposure to Donner Pass weather delays, the release states, while on-site warehousing and freight services can cut down on transfers between facilities and potentially reduce demurrage and per diem charges. The release also states that tenants shipping through the port can bypass DOT weight restrictions and ship up to 20% more per container, though that claim comes directly from the companies' own announcement.
Federal Grant and Conflicting Acreage Figures
The project has been awarded $6.1 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity, or RAISE, Grant, according to the release. Lichter called the completed building an important step in IRG's long-term investment in the Port of Nevada, with the company framing it as part of an effort to attract growing companies and create lasting economic opportunities for Fernley and the wider region.
Sources differ on just how big the underlying property is. The PR Newswire announcement describes continued development of the 224-acre property in Fernley, while Northern Nevada Business Weekly reported earlier this year that IRG acquired the 250-acre site six years ago. That same local report described the building as featuring 32-foot clear heights alongside the 25 loading docks cited in the official release.
A Tight Industrial Market Looking for More Space
The timing lines up with a Northern Nevada industrial market that's been squeezed for new supply. Vacancy across the region decreased by 100 basis points quarter-over-quarter to 11.5% in the second quarter of 2026, the lowest point since the third quarter of 2024, according to a Colliers market report. Net absorption totaled 2.04 million square feet in that quarter, bringing the first-half total to 2.50 million square feet, even as average asking rent inched up to $0.80 per square foot.
Supply hasn't kept pace with that demand. Only 330,000 square feet of new industrial space had been completed across Northern Nevada year-to-date as of the first half of 2026, per the Colliers report, which also noted that the only other project of size in the pipeline was Conco's 652,000-square-foot build-to-suit project in the Fernley submarket. The Fernley submarket itself ran hotter than the regional average, with industrial vacancy there reported at 18.6% for the quarter ended March 31, according to Northern Nevada Business Weekly's account of Colliers data.
Fernley has drawn other large-scale rail-served development in recent years. Mark IV Capital completed a rail spur connecting its 4,300-acre Victory Logistics District to the national rail network, according to Connect CRE, with more than one mile of new Union Pacific track built to Class I standards connecting directly to the transcontinental main line and three run-around tracks serving 100 acres of rail-ready land. A separate Lee & Associates report had listed an 815,215-square-foot logistics project at 1895 Duffy Road in Fernley, with Mark IV Capital as landlord and the tenant left undisclosed.
For now, the Port of Nevada's new building joins that broader wave of Fernley industrial construction without a confirmed occupant of its own. The companies' own figures underline why the location keeps drawing developers: the port's on-site transload business transported nearly 300,000 tons of freight in 2025, according to the earlier PR Newswire milestone announcement, a track record IRG and ARCO are betting will help fill the new space.
