MEQUON, WIS. — Kleen Test Products Corp. has signed a 30,000-square-foot industrial lease at 1000 W. Donges Bay in Mequon, a northern suburb of Milwaukee. Paul McBride and John Davis of Founders 3 Real Estate Services represented the owner, Stern Real Estate LLC. The tenant develops, manufactures and packages items such as wet wipes and dryer sheets.
PHOENIX — Baker Development has started the final phase of demolition on a 72-acre industrial site in Phoenix, as part of a redevelopment of the property. Beginning in the 1960s, the site housed a Motorola semiconductor manufacturing campus. Work has been underway at the site for three years, and Baker has delivered one of four parcels to a data center user. Daniel J. Slack, president and COO of Baker, says that the developer is also “in discussions with other well-known companies attracted to the site’s substation-level power, its Foreign Trade Zone potential, as well as access to nearby housing, diverse labor pool and recreational amenities.”
EL PASO, TEXAS — St. Louis-based Sansone Group and its equity partner Raith Capital Partners will develop Rancho del Rey Logistics Park, an industrial development in El Paso that will ultimately comprise more than 3.7 million square feet. The 235-acre site at the junction of at I-10 and Loop 375 features proximity to the Ysleta-Zaragoza port of entry. Rancho del Rey Logistics Park will be developed in three phases via a ground lease with an undisclosed local family that has owned the land for multiple generations. A groundbreaking ceremony for Phase I, which will encompass three buildings totaling roughly 1.4 million square feet, will take place in mid-March. The first of those three buildings, a 413,035-square-foot structure, is slated for a fourth-quarter delivery and is fully preleased to Fortune 100 company Bosch. Bob Feinberg and Tom Jones of Colliers represented the landowner and developers in structuring the ground lease and in negotiating the lease for Building 1. Brett Preston and David Hingst of Cushman & Wakefield represented Bosch.
AURORA, COLO. — JLL Capital Markets has negotiated the sale of Commerce Square, an industrial property in the Denver suburb of Aurora that totals 145,242 square feet across two buildings. Situated on nine acres, the buildings feature rear-loading configurations, 18-foot clear heights, 38 docks, 11 drive-in doors and 265 parking spaces. Larry Thiel, Ryan Sitov and Rob Key of JLL represented the seller, Graham Street Realty, in the transaction. Midtown National Group acquired the property, which was leased to 12 tenants at the time of sale, for an undisclosed price. The leasing team for Commerce Square included Carmon Hicks and Jason White of JLL.
KAHULUI, HAWAII — Alexander & Baldwin has arranged one lease and completed the sale of two properties at Maui Business Park Phase II, its 125-acre mixed-use development located in Kahului on the island of Maui. The build-to-suit industrial lease totals 29,500 square feet. The undisclosed tenant plans to relocate operations to the site upon completion of the warehouse and distribution facility. The County of Maui also purchased 12.5 acres at the property for $17.4 million, with plans to construct a new facility for its Department of Transportation. Hamai Appliances Inc. also purchased two lots totaling 1.3 acres for $2.4 million. The buyer plans to build a showroom and service center on the site to expand its current operations.
HOUSTON — Partners Real Estate has arranged the sale of a 9,283-square-foot industrial building in northwest Houston. According to LoopNet Inc., the single-tenant property at 10959 Cutten Road was built in 2004 and features 16-foot clear heights and 20 dock-high doors. Wyatt Huff and Hunter Stockard of Partners represented the buyer, M-Tech Electric LLC, in the transaction. Nick Bergmann of CBRE represented the undisclosed seller.
ITASCA AND ELMHURST, ILL. — Lee & Associates of Illinois has negotiated a pair of industrial lease renewals totaling 112,917 square feet in DuPage County. Jeff Janda and Mike Plumb of Lee & Associates represented tenant Atlas Wire in its lease of 54,690 square feet at 1601 Glenlake Ave. in Itasca. Building owner, Prologis, was self-represented. Janda also represented landlord DRA Advisors on a lease of 58,227 square feet at 951-953 Larch Ave. in Elmhurst. Kevin Segerson of CBRE represented the tenant, Closet Works.
— By Rob Martensen, Vice Chair, Colliers International — What’s hot in Phoenix’s industrial market? This is a question we get asked a lot from developers and property owners looking to enter our region. The topic of conversation is mostly centered around the amount of space under construction in the Phoenix MSA and what parts of town are seeing the most activity. In the past, we had submarkets that would be more or less attractive, and we would steer clients in that direction. Today, however, the entire Phoenix metropolitan area is in play for tenants and owners. Greater Phoenix has been fortunate to land several “whales,” large corporations that bring multiple suppliers with them. Naturally, the one most talked about is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) in North Phoenix. TSMC took down nearly 1,600 acres of land to build a $12 billion chip making factory. The company has since announced it will immediately commence construction on Phase II of the project. Intel is another chip manufacturer that has had a presence in nearby Chandler, but is now under construction on a $20 billion expansion. Both of these undertakings will continue to feed companies that move to Phoenix and support not …
HUTCHINS, TEXAS — Atlanta-based fast food restaurant Chick-fil-A has opened a $100 million distribution center in Hutchins, a southern suburb of Dallas, according to reports from multiple news outlets including Fox 4 KDFW and The Dallas Express. Both publications report that the facility will span approximately 290,000 square feet, employ more than 200 people and serve more than 200 restaurants in the region. Chick-fil-A, which opened its 3,000th restaurant a couple months ago in Dallas, now operates seven distribution centers throughout the country.
AUGUSTA, GA. — Graphic Packaging Holding Co., a publicly traded consumer packaging manufacturer based in Atlanta, has signed a definitive agreement to sell its bleached paperboard manufacturing plant in Augusta. The buyer is Clearwater Paper Corp., a publicly traded supplier of private-brand tissue products and paperboard materials based in Spokane, Wash. The transaction is valued at $700 million and is expected to close in the second quarter, pending regulatory approval. Details about the facility were not disclosed, but Graphic Packaging’s website indicates that the mill is located at 4278 Mike Padgett Highway. According to The Augusta Chronicle, Graphic Packaging purchased the plant from International Paper in 2018 before investing $350 million in capital improvements at the facility. The newspaper also reports the facility was built in 1960 by Continental Can Co. Graphic Packaging’s consultants in the transaction include financial advisor BofA Securities and legal counsel Alston & Bird LLP. Clearwater Paper’s advisors include TD Securities (financial); Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw, Pittman LLP (legal); and Stoel, Rives LLP (environmental).