MESA, ARIZ. — Trez Capital has closed a construction loan for Dale Cavan for the development of Hawes Commerce Park, an industrial project at the intersection of East Pecos and South Hawes roads in Mesa. Currently under construction, Hawes Commerce Park will feature 10 buildings with a combined 16 units and a total of 153,000 net rentable square feet. The property sits adjacent to Phoenix’s secondary airport, Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. Completion is slated for third-quarter 2024.
NEWARK, N.J. — A joint venture between two locally based development and investment firms, CrownPoint Group Inc. and Lamar Cos., will develop a 1,200-unit self-storage facility in Newark’s Ironbound district. The site is a former salvage yard that comprises four lots totaling roughly one acre, and the six-story, climate-controlled facility will span 135,000 gross square feet. Construction is set to begin in the fourth quarter. Extra Space Storage will operate the property. Michael Klein, Jon Mikula and Ryan Carroll of JLL arranged a $19 million construction loan through Provident Bank on behalf of the development team.
SPRINGDALE, OHIO — Ditsch USA has unveiled plans to expand its operations in the Cincinnati area. The expansion includes a building purchase and renovation, adding fully automated bakery production lines and increasing industrial freezer storage capacity. The pretzel manufacturer has made a commitment to bring 150 new jobs over the next three years to the area. The expansion comes nine years after Ditsch selected Springdale, Ohio, as its first location outside of Germany for its U.S. headquarters. Ditsch is converting a former Costco site in Springdale, offering future employment opportunities for production associates, maintenance technicians and line supervisors. JobsOhio, a private nonprofit economic development corporation, is planning to assist the project with talent acquisition services. The expansion was also made possible with support from REDI Cincinnati, the first point of contact for companies locating or growing in the 16-county region at the heart of southwest Ohio, northern Kentucky and southeast Indiana.
TROY, ILL. — Contegra Construction Co. has completed a 35,000-square-foot fabrication facility for NuWay FAB in Troy, an eastern suburb of St. Louis. The project quadruples NuWay’s annual rebar production capacity, enabling the company to produce 15,000 tons of reinforcing steel or rebar annually. The project features a 31,000-square-foot fabrication shop and 4,000 square feet of office space. There are three overhead cranes, three bays and five drive-in doors. Joining Contegra on the project were J.F. Electric, Vee-Jay Cement Contracting, Illinois Electric Works and Affton Fabricating & Welding Co.
GLOUCESTER COUNTY, N.J. — An affiliate of German asset management firm DWS Group will undertake a 141,000-square-foot industrial expansion project at Commerce Corner, a 259,910-square-foot development located about 25 miles outside of Philadelphia in Southern New Jersey. The expansion project, which is expected to cost about $29 million, is a build-to-suit for Performance Food Group. Construction is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter and to last about a year. In conjunction with the project, Performance Food Group is extending its lease by 15 years.
PINELLAS PARK, FLA. — Cushman & Wakefield has arranged the $21 million sale-leaseback of a 29.5-acre industrial site located at 3565 126th Ave. in Pinellas Park. Albany Road Real Estate Partners purchased the site from Gaston Trees Debris Recycling, which is leasing back 10 acres at the site. Rick Brugge, Mike Davis, Rick Colon, Dominic Montazemi, John Jackson, J.T. Faircloth, Casey Perry, Cassandra Hernandez and Chloe Strada of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller in the transaction. Jingoli Power leases 12 acres at the site, and the remaining 7.5 acres is available for lease. Situated less than five miles from the St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport, the site is zoned for up to 450,000 square feet of industrial development.
HAGERSTOWN, MD. — Lee & Associates has negotiated two leases at New Heights Industrial Park in Hagerstown totaling 58,750 square feet. The 900,000-square-foot industrial park is located at 18450 Showalter Road, less than one mile from Hagerstown Regional Airport and I-81. The new tenants joining New Heights include Tomu Inc., a prefabricated modular buildings system user that is leasing 15,000 square feet, and Pycube, a Virginia-based healthcare asset management firm that is leasing 43,750 square feet. Joel Kreider and Ed Skonecki of Lee & Associates represented the landlord, a joint venture between Bluestone Group and The Langer Co., in both lease transactions. With this leasing activity, the project is approximately 82 percent leased.
NEW IBERIA, LA. — First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR), an Arizona-based provider of solar panels, has broken ground on a $1.1 billion manufacturing facility in New Iberia, located just southeast of Lafayette in the south-central part of Louisiana. The facility will be located on the grounds of Acadiana Regional Airport and will ultimately encompass more than 2 million square feet. The project, which local community leaders and members of the development team believe is the biggest in the history of the parish, is expected to generate about 700 new permanent manufacturing jobs within the local economy. First Solar anticipates that the plant will be fully operational and able to begin shipping products by the first half of 2026. When that scenario materializes, the company’s total manufacturing capacity will increase from 3.5 gigawatts to approximately 14 gigawatts in the United States and 25 gigawatts globally. At full capacity, the plant will be capable of churning out more than a dozen panels per minute. To secure the project in Iberia Parish, the State of Louisiana offered First Solar an incentives package that includes the workforce solutions of LED FastStart, a Louisiana Economic Development program for training and onboarding workers. Additional incentives include …
SOUTHLAKE, TEXAS — A joint venture between two Dallas-based investment firms, Pillar Commercial and OliveMill Holdings, has purchased Pinnacle Point, an 81,259-square-foot flex property in Southlake, located in the northern-central region of the metroplex. Built in 2020, Pinnacle Point consists of three single-story buildings on a seven-acre site. Parker McCormack of JLL represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction. Security National Bank provided acquisition financing to the joint venture.
BROOMFIELD, COLO. — St. John Properties has started construction of Simms Technology Park, an 81-acre mixed-use business community in Broomfield. Upon completion, the project will feature nearly 600,000 square feet of single-story and multi-story office and flex/research-and-development (R&D) space, as well as complementary retail amenities. The first phase of the park includes a single-story 41,000-square-foot office building and two flex/R&D buildings offering a total of nearly 70,000 square feet of space. Totaling just over 110,000 square feet, the three buildings are designed to achieve LEED certification. Completion of the three buildings is slated for summer 2024. In summer 2022, Broomfield City Council granted approval for St. John Properties to begin development activities on Simms Technology Park, a $125 million project at the intersection of North Simms Street and West 112th Avenue in Broomfield County, approximately 20 miles northwest of Denver. The Baltimore-based developer acquired the development site from Brocade Communications Systems LLC in 2020. In addition to the initial three buildings, St. John Properties is currently marketing the sale or ground lease of four pad sites, ranging from 1.5 acres to two acres, that can support various uses, including restaurants, convenient stores/gas stations and fast food. The final development is expected …
