ACC Bakersfield JV, LLC wants to build warehouse, cold storage and food production space beside Meadows Field. Here is who is behind it and what it could mean for Kern County’s industrial market.
The Airport Commerce Center Bakersfield project is a proposed 1,505,440-square-foot industrial campus on about 110 acres at Merle Haggard Drive and Airport Drive in Oildale, Kern County, California, beside Meadows Field. ACC Bakersfield JV, LLC plans four buildings plus two quick-serve restaurants. The county Planning Commission reportedly recommended approval on Sept. 10, 2026, and the Kern County Board of Supervisors set its continued hearing for Oct. 13, 2026.
Key takeaways
- The campus would total 1,505,440 square feet in four buildings, including 393,624 square feet of cold storage and 335,826 square feet of food and beverage manufacturing.
- According to a CitizenPortal.ai summary, the Planning Commission recommended approval on Sept. 10, 2026. The Sept. 29 board agenda listed the item for continuance to Oct. 13 at 2 p.m.
- County environmental documents estimate 532 employees. The California Air Resources Board estimated up to about 6,885 daily vehicle trips, including 824 heavy-duty truck trips.
- Brokerage reports put Bakersfield industrial availability at 10.1% in Q2 2026, with one 510,000-square-foot building under construction in the whole market.
- A Q2 2026 brokerage report found food and beverage and logistics tenants account for 40% of total tenants in the South Central Valley market.
Airport Commerce Center at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Project | Airport Commerce Center Industrial Project |
| Location | North side of Merle Haggard Drive, west side of Airport Drive, Oildale (unincorporated Kern County, ZIP 93308), about 0.3 miles from Meadows Field |
| Applicant | ACC Bakersfield JV, LLC (contact: a partner at Bayspring Real Estate Partners) |
| Jurisdiction | Kern County (Supervisorial District 3) |
| Case numbers | GPA No. 5, ZCC No. 46, Precise Development Plan No. 36 and Nonsummary Vacation, all Map 81-35; PP24405; PLN23-00829; SCH No. 2025030498 |
| Parcels | APNs 483-040-32, -33, -42, -43, -45 and -46 |
| Size | About 110 acres; 1,505,440 SF in four buildings plus 9,410 SF in two quick-serve restaurants |
| Uses | Warehouse (625,446 SF), cold storage (393,624 SF), food and beverage manufacturing or assembly (335,826 SF), office (150,544 SF) |
| Jobs | 532 employees (county environmental documents) |
| Status | Planning Commission recommendation reported Sept. 10; Board of Supervisors continued the hearing on Sept. 29 |
| Next step | Continued Board of Supervisors hearing, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, 2 p.m. |
What is the Airport Commerce Center Bakersfield project?
It is a request to build four industrial buildings totaling 1,505,440 square feet, plus two quick-serve restaurants with 9,410 square feet combined. The Final EIR filing with the State Clearinghouse breaks the building area into these uses:
| Use | Area |
|---|---|
| Warehouse | 625,446 SF |
| Cold storage | 393,624 SF |
| Food and beverage manufacturing or assembly | 335,826 SF |
| Office | 150,544 SF |
| Two quick-serve restaurants | 9,410 SF |
| Total industrial building area | 1,505,440 SF on about 110 acres |
County environmental documents estimate 532 employees at full operation. The March 2025 Notice of Preparation described single-story warehouses up to 60 feet tall, about 225 dock and grade-level doors, roughly 2,001 auto spaces, 401 truck trailer stalls and 102 EV charging stations. Those early figures may have changed in the Final EIR.
Acreage differs by source. The county’s notice and agenda say about 109 to 110 acres, and a California Department of Fish and Wildlife letter says 114.8 acres. This article uses about 110 acres.
What approvals does the project need?
The project needs five county actions. The request (county files PP24405 and PLN23-00829) bundles them on Map 81-35:
- General Plan Amendment No. 5, changing 13.76 acres from General Commercial (GC) to Service Industrial (SI).
- Zone Classification Change No. 46, rezoning portions of the site from M-1 PD H and FPP to M-2 PD H.
- Precise Development Plan No. 36.
- A nonsummary vacation of two drainage easements covering about 10.24 acres.
- Certification of the Final Environmental Impact Report, SCH No. 2025030498.
Where is the Airport Commerce Center site?
The site is six parcels on the north side of Merle Haggard Drive and the west side of Airport Drive in Supervisorial District 3, about 0.3 miles from Meadows Field in unincorporated Oildale, Kern County, according to the Sept. 29, 2026 board agenda and the Notice of Preparation. The notice puts the site inside the airport’s sphere of influence and in Zone C of the Airport Land Use Compatibility Plan. Trucks reach SR 99 by way of the Seventh Standard Road exit, and the Draft EIR notice of completion lists SR 65 and the Union Pacific railroad within two miles.
The neighbors are already industrial. The notice lists an Amazon warehouse and an oil tank farm to the west and a tank farm to the north. 23ABC reported that an Amazon fulfillment center on Petrol Road near Meadows Field opened in 2020.
What is the site’s history?
The land is vacant and crossed by a floodplain running from its northeast corner to its southwest corner, according to the notice. It already carries Service Industrial and General Commercial general plan designations and M-2 PD H, M-1 PD H and FPP zoning.
The Airport Commerce Center name predates this application. An older, off-market Showcase.com listing marketed about 116.92 acres at the northwest corner of the same intersection as “Airport Commerce Center South,” offered on a ground lease. Bayspring Real Estate Partners’ portfolio page lists “ACC Bakersfield South,” dated October 2024, as a 1,682,080-square-foot industrial entitlement on 105 acres at that intersection. That is larger than the plan now before the county.
Who is behind ACC Bakersfield JV, LLC?
The state’s CEQAnet record lists a Bayspring Real Estate Partners partner, Bryce Holman, as the applicant’s contact. A CitizenPortal.ai summary of the Sept. 10 hearing identifies him as the applicant’s representative. Public sources do not name the joint venture’s other members or the current landowner.
Bayspring describes itself as a West Coast investor and developer founded in 2022, with offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles and more than $500 million transacted. The firm says it has more than 600 acres in entitlement and 1.7 million square feet of distribution space in design. Its four partners came from Presidio Bay Ventures, Lincoln Property Company and Trammell Crow Company. The Bakersfield project is the largest industrial entry on its portfolio page.
What does the Airport Commerce Center mean for the Kern County industrial market?
It would add large-block and temperature-controlled space to a market with ample availability and almost no construction. Here is how three brokerage reports measured the market in Q2 2026:
| Measure | Report A (Bakersfield industrial) | Report B (South Central Valley, buildings 50,000 SF and up) | Report C (Bakersfield industrial) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vacancy | Not reported | 11.3% | 9.55% (10.90% in Q1) |
| Availability | 10.1%, up 20 basis points year over year | 13.1% | Not reported |
| Average asking rent | $0.71 per SF per month, NNN | $0.60 per SF per month, NNN | $10.05 NNN (the report states no period; this article treats it as annual, about $0.84 per SF per month) |
| Other | One 510,000 SF building under construction; about 13.1 million SF proposed | 1,499,945 SF of positive net absorption in the quarter | Specialized properties outperforming logistics buildings |
Sources: Report A, a national brokerage’s Bakersfield industrial report, Report B, a national brokerage’s South Central Valley industrial report and Report C, a regional brokerage’s Bakersfield market report. The reports track different building sets, but all three show elevated vacancy that is holding steady or improving.
Report A counted about 6.8 million square feet available in a 67.4 million-square-foot inventory, and its only building under construction is in Arvin and due in Q1 2027. Nationally, a Q2 2026 national industrial report showed vacancy compressing 60 basis points to 6.8% and big-box leasing of 500,000 square feet or more rising 58.3% year over year. Report A also put Bakersfield metro unemployment at 8.5% in Q2 2026, which makes 532 permanent jobs significant locally.
Why cold storage and food manufacturing?
About half the building area targets cold storage and food production, which fits the region’s tenants. Report B found that food and beverage and logistics tenants account for 40% of total tenants in the South Central Valley market and expects conditions to “remain stable to improving through the remainder of 2026.”
Cold storage nationally is softer. A brokerage’s first-half 2026 cold storage overview, as reported by Refrigerated & Frozen Foods, put U.S. cold storage vacancy at 7.7%, with the first negative first-half net absorption since 2007 and construction costs of roughly $130 to $350 per square foot. An RL Cold executive told Bisnow in March 2026 the sector is seeing “more focus on the build-to-suit side.” For background on these buildings, see our guide to cold storage and ag-industrial facilities in Kern County.
What competing industrial supply is near Meadows Field?
The nearest competitor is the IPG Industrial Project, which supervisors approved on Aug. 5, 2025. It is about 923,075 square feet in two logistics buildings on roughly 49 acres at Airport Drive and Boughton Drive. Southeast Bakersfield is also drawing a large user. See our report on the Ross distribution center.
For tenants, the project would add north-side space, while the market’s largest recent delivery and its only building under construction are in the Arvin and Tejon area to the south. For owners of nearby dry warehouses, the direct competition is mainly the 625,446 square feet of standard warehouse space. Kern County’s logistics advantages along I-5, SR 99 and SR 58 explain why developers keep targeting the area.
What concerns have been raised about the project?
The Draft EIR found impacts that remain significant after mitigation: air quality and greenhouse gas emissions (project and cumulative), vehicle miles traveled (project and cumulative), and cumulative hydrology, water quality and water supply, according to the State Clearinghouse summary form. When supervisors approved the nearby IPG project with significant impacts in 2025, they adopted a statement of overriding considerations, according to that project’s Notice of Determination.
The California Air Resources Board’s April 8, 2026 comment letter estimated up to about 6,885 daily vehicle trips at full buildout, including 824 heavy-duty truck trips and 265 by trucks with transport refrigeration units. CARB said the census tract scores in the 88th percentile on CalEnviroScreen 4.0, making it a disadvantaged community, and that the closest residence is within 400 feet of the eastern boundary. It questioned the assumption that refrigeration units idle only 30 minutes per visit. It urged electric hookups for refrigerated trucks and a phased shift to zero-emission trucks beginning in 2030.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s April 20, 2026 letter asked for protocol surveys and avoidance measures for the blunt-nosed leopard lizard, San Joaquin kit fox, Swainson’s hawk, western burrowing owl and western spadefoot. The county’s Aug. 27, 2026 response to comments also answers the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, Caltrans, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Golden State Environmental Justice Alliance and the Santa Rosa Rancheria Tachi Yokut Tribe, among others.
CitizenPortal.ai’s AI-generated hearing summaries, which are not official minutes, report that labor representatives spoke in favor and that the applicant described union construction jobs, on-site solar, electric truck infrastructure and truck routing. They also report that county staff presented 78 mitigation measures. The conditions of approval in the board’s staff report will be the authoritative list.
What happens next for the Airport Commerce Center?
The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to take up the continued hearing on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, at 2 p.m. The Sept. 29 agenda listed the request as item CA 10 with the action “CONTINUE TO TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2026, AT 2:00 P.M.”
Supervisors will consider certifying the Final EIR and approving the general plan amendment, zone change, precise development plan and easement vacation. If they approve, the county would file a Notice of Determination with the State Clearinghouse, as it did for the IPG project one day after that vote. Our guides to industrial zoning in Bakersfield and Kern County and industrial land entitlements and CEQA explain what approval involves.
The Notice of Preparation assumed 27 months of construction, from March 2026 to May 2028. That schedule predates the hearing continuances, so the real start depends on the board’s decision, final engineering and leasing.
Airport Commerce Center timeline
- March 12, 2025: Notice of Preparation filed with the State Clearinghouse (CEQAnet).
- Feb. 27 to April 13, 2026: Draft EIR public review (CEQAnet).
- May 14, July 23 and Aug. 27, 2026: Planning Commission hearings continued (Kern County Planning).
- Aug. 27, 2026: Response to comments and Final EIR chapter filed (CEQAnet).
- Sept. 10, 2026: Planning Commission reportedly recommends certification and approval (CitizenPortal.ai).
- Sept. 29, 2026: Board of Supervisors agenda lists the item for continuance (agenda).
- Oct. 13, 2026, 2 p.m.: Continued Board of Supervisors hearing.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the Airport Commerce Center in Bakersfield?
The site is on the north side of Merle Haggard Drive and the west side of Airport Drive in Oildale, an unincorporated community north of Bakersfield. It covers six parcels, APNs 483-040-32, -33, -42, -43, -45 and -46, about 0.3 miles from Meadows Field. Trucks reach SR 99 by way of Seventh Standard Road.
How big is the Airport Commerce Center project?
The plan calls for 1,505,440 square feet in four buildings on about 110 acres. That includes 625,446 square feet of warehouse, 393,624 square feet of cold storage, 335,826 square feet of food and beverage manufacturing or assembly and 150,544 square feet of office. Two quick-serve restaurants would add 9,410 square feet.
Who is developing the Airport Commerce Center?
The applicant is ACC Bakersfield JV, LLC. State records list a Bayspring Real Estate Partners partner as its contact, and he spoke for the applicant at the Sept. 10 hearing, according to CitizenPortal.ai. Bayspring is a San Francisco and Los Angeles developer founded in 2022. The venture’s other members have not been identified publicly.
Has Kern County approved the Airport Commerce Center?
Not yet. The Planning Commission reportedly recommended approval on Sept. 10, 2026, and the Board of Supervisors’ Sept. 29 agenda listed the item for continuance. The board’s continued hearing is set for Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, at 2 p.m.
How many jobs would the Airport Commerce Center create?
Kern County’s environmental documents estimate 532 employees once the campus is operating. The Notice of Preparation estimated a construction workforce of up to about 100 people over roughly 27 months. Final job counts will depend on the tenants.
What environmental impacts did the Airport Commerce Center EIR find?
The Draft EIR found significant impacts that remain after mitigation for air quality, greenhouse gases, vehicle miles traveled and cumulative water resources. The California Air Resources Board estimated up to about 6,885 daily vehicle trips, including 824 heavy-duty truck trips. It also asked for electric hookups for refrigerated trucks.
Who will occupy the Airport Commerce Center buildings?
No tenant has been announced. The mix of warehouse, cold storage and food manufacturing space targets the kinds of users that brokerage reports say dominate regional demand. Leasing will likely shape when construction starts.
Questions about how the Airport Commerce Center could affect leasing, land values or availability near Meadows Field? Call Kern CRE at 855-KERN-CRE (855-537-6273) or contact us. Get Kern County CRE news monthly: subscribe to the Kern CRE report.
Sources
- Airport Commerce Center Industrial Project by ACC Bakersfield JV, LLC (NOP, SCH 2025030498), CEQAnet (State Clearinghouse), received March 12, 2025.
- Airport Commerce Center Industrial Project, Draft EIR, CEQAnet (State Clearinghouse), received Feb. 26, 2026.
- Response to Comments (Final EIR materials), CEQAnet (State Clearinghouse), received Aug. 27, 2026.
- Notice of Preparation and Initial Study, Kern County Planning and Natural Resources Department, March 2025.
- Notice of Completion, Draft EIR, Kern County Planning and Natural Resources Department, February 2026.
- Draft EIR Summary Form for Electronic Document Submittal, Kern County Planning and Natural Resources Department, February 2026.
- Airport Commerce Center Industrial Project (project page, hearing history), Kern County Planning and Natural Resources Department.
- Agenda, Sept. 29, 2026, 2:00 p.m. session, item CA 10, Kern County Board of Supervisors, Sept. 29, 2026.
- Comment letter on the Draft EIR, California Air Resources Board, April 8, 2026.
- Comment letter on the Draft EIR, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, April 20, 2026.
- Kern County Planning Commission recommends Airport Commerce Center project, CitizenPortal.ai, Sept. 11, 2026.
- Staff: EIR for Airport Commerce Center includes 78 mitigation measures but some impacts are unavoidable, CitizenPortal.ai, Sept. 11, 2026.
- Bayspring Real Estate Partners home page, team and portfolio, Bayspring Real Estate Partners.
- Merle Haggard Way @ Airport Drive, Bakersfield, CA 93308 (off-market land listing), Showcase.com, undated.
- Amazon Fulfillment Center opens in Bakersfield, 23ABC News, Aug. 20, 2020.
- IPG Industrial Project, Notice of Determination, CEQAnet (State Clearinghouse), received Aug. 6, 2025.
- Bakersfield Industrial MarketBeat, Q2 2026, Cushman & Wakefield, Q2 2026.
- South Central Valley Industrial Figures Q2 2026, CBRE, Aug. 3, 2026.
- Q2 2026 Bakersfield, CA Industrial Market Report, Lee & Associates, July 2026.
- U.S. Industrial Market Dynamics, Q2 2026, JLL, July 21, 2026.
- Newmark Cold Storage Report Shows 7% Vacancy, Refrigerated & Frozen Foods, Aug. 28, 2026.
- Cold Storage Vacancy At 20-Year High As Food Spending Tightens, Bisnow, March 26, 2026.
About this article
Kern CRE prepared this article with help from AI research and writing tools. An editor reviewed the draft, checked its facts against the sources linked above and edited it for accuracy and clarity. Details come from public records and the sources cited; unless stated, Kern CRE and ASU Commercial were not involved in the transaction or project.