GRAND PRAIRIE, TEXAS — U-Haul will open a 59,000-square-foot warehouse in Grand Prairie, located roughly midway between Dallas and Fort Worth, that will be used to store portable storage and moving containers known as “U Boxes.” The 2.5-acre site is located at the northeast corner of I-20 and State Highway 360. The single-story, tilt-wall building will be situated adjacent to an existing U-Haul self-storage facility. Dallas-based MYCON General Contractors has begun construction on the project, and completion is scheduled for May.
Industrial
Schnitzer Properties Completes 560,352 SF Queen Creek Commerce Center in Chandler, Arizona
by Amy Works
CHANDLER, ARIZ. — Portland, Ore.-based Schnitzer Properties has completed the construction of Queen Creek Commerce Center, a two-building industrial project at Queen Creek Road and Hamilton Street in Chandler. Situated on 34 acres, Queen Creek Commerce Center features 560,352 square feet of industrial space. Three tenants have pre-leased the development: Intel, NEHP and Horsepower Automotive Group. Rick Collins of JLL brokered the leases on behalf of Schnitzer Properties.
BALTIMORE — Baltimore-based M&T Realty Capital has arranged $62.5 million in financing for a portfolio of industrial properties totaling approximately 1.9 million square feet that are located in various areas in Rochester, New York, and Southern New Jersey. An undisclosed life insurance company provided the nonrecourse financing, which was structured with a 10-year term and a fixed interest rate. The names and addresses of the properties, as well as the borrower, were also not disclosed.
DURHAM, N.C. — Eli Lilly and Co., a pharmaceutical giant based in Indianapolis, plans to invest $450 million to expand its campus within Research Triangle Park (RTP) in Durham. The expansion includes additional parenteral filling, device assembly and packaging capacity to support an increased demand for the company’s incretin products that treat diabetes. The move is expected to create at least 100 new jobs, primarily comprising manufacturing personnel who will produce incretin treatments and medical devices. Eli Lilly expects the new facility to come on line in 2027. Since 2020, the company has committed roughly $4 billion to new manufacturing facilities in North Carolina, including $1.7 billion for the development and expansion of its RTP base.
TAMPA, FLA. — Birmingham, Ala.-based Graham & Co. has purchased 21 acres at the intersection of U.S. Highway 301 and Florida Palm Drive in Tampa. The developer plans to build a 262,440-square-foot, three-building industrial park on the site called East Tampa Commerce Center. The three facilities will range in size from 85,500 to 91,440 square feet and feature 32-foot clear heights within a concrete tilt-wall structure. Set to deliver in early 2024, the buildings will be available for single-tenant users or could be divided into smaller suites to accommodate multiple tenants. The development team includes the previous landowner and development partner, an entity doing business as Palm River JLM Center Ltd., as well as Graham & Co.’s affiliate Graham Capital. Other members of the project team include general contractor ARCO/Murray and civil engineer Kimley-Horn. Truist provided an undisclosed amount of construction financing for the project. Additionally, included in the land acquisition was a separate purchase of an existing industrial facility located at 9208 Palm River Road.
MONTGOMERY, N.Y. — New Jersey-based developer Diversified Properties has broken ground on a seven-building, 495-unit self-storage facility in Montgomery, about 80 miles north of New York City. The facility will consist of one two-story building totaling 39,000 net rentable square feet, and six single-story buildings, each of which will total 6,900 net rentable square feet. Morris Construction Management is overseeing construction of the project, which is scheduled for an October completion. CubeSmart is the proposed operator of the facility.
LINCOLN PARK, N.J. — CBRE has negotiated a 40,000-square-foot office and industrial lease renewal in the Northern New Jersey community of Lincoln Park. Thomas Mallaney and Denise Kokulak of CBRE represented the tenant, Hishi Plastics USA, a division of Mitsubishi Chemical America, in the lease negotiations. The Frassetto Cos. owns the building.
Tesla to Invest $3.6B for Electric Battery, Truck Factories at Gigafactory Nevada Campus
by John Nelson
SPARKS, NEV. — Electric car manufacturing giant Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) plans to invest $3.6 billion to expand Gigafactory Nevada, an advanced manufacturing campus in the Reno suburb of Sparks that Tesla launched in 2014. The company’s investment will include two new factories — a battery manufacturing facility and a truck factory — that can support approximately 3,000 new team members. At the battery facility, Tesla plans to produce enough of its patented 4680 battery cells for 1.5 million light-duty vehicles annually. The facility will have the capacity for 100 Gigawatt hours (GWh) annually. The truck factory represents the first high-volume factory for Semi, Tesla’s fully electric combination truck that was announced in 2017. The company’s Semi trucks can travel up to 500 miles on a single charge and run on less than 2 kilowatt hours (kWh) per mile, which Tesla says gives companies using commercial transportation a sustainable freight option. The first Semi trucks were delivered in December 2022 to PepsiCo, according to CNBC. Gigafactory Nevada currently spans 5.4 million square feet and represents a $6.2 billion investment for Tesla to date. Annually Tesla produces 7.3 billion battery cells, 1.5 million battery packs, 3.6 million electric vehicles and 1 …
DALLAS — Foundation Building Materials, a California-based provider of construction supplies, has signed a 30,547-square-foot industrial lease renewal at 8301 John Carpenter Freeway in Dallas. Chicago-based investment firm ML Realty owns the property and was internally represented in the lease negotiations. Ryan Boozer and Lena Pierce of Stream Realty Partners represented the tenant.
ROCK HILL, S.C. — Karis Cold is under construction on a 277,785-square-foot cold storage facility in Rock Hill. Situated on a 40-acre site, the project represents the first cold storage speculative facility in metro Charlotte. The property, which Karis Cold expects to open in first-quarter 2024, will feature convertible freezers, 50-foot clear heights, 28 dock doors with two drive-in doors, 47 trailer parking stalls and 147 regular parking spaces. Spencer Yorke, John Cashion and Rich Grieder of JLL will lead the development’s marketing and leasing efforts on behalf of Karis Cold.