HOUSTON — NAI Partners has sold Leghorn Service Center, a 66,530-square-foot industrial property in Houston. NAI Partners acquired the three-building complex in 2019 through one of its investment funds. Charlie Strauss, Trent Agnew and Katherine Miller of JLL served as the listing brokers in the transaction and procured the buyer, a locally based private investment firm. Leghorn Service Center was fully leased at the time of sale.
HOUSTON — Cypressbrook Co. has negotiated a 25,368-square-foot industrial lease at 1819 Turning Basin Drive in east Houston. According to LoopNet Inc., the property was built in 1980 and totals 65,494 square feet. John Hornbuckle of Cypressbrook represented the tenant, EN Group Corp., in the lease negotiations. David Munson of Boyd Commercial represented the landlord, First Industrial Texas LP.
CHANNAHON, ILL. — Camso USA Inc., a subsidiary of Michelin, has signed a 252,208-square-foot industrial lease at 24601 S. Bradley St. in Channahon. The company is relocating from a warehouse in nearby Joliet and expects to move into the new facility in September following the completion of tenant improvements. Camso is one of North America’s largest manufacturers and distributors of rubber tires and tracks for off-road vehicles and construction equipment. David Liebman of Merit Partners Inc. represented the tenant in the lease transaction. Sean Henrick and Jason West of Cushman & Wakefield represented the landlord, Crow Holdings Industrial.
EARTH CITY, MO. — The Opus Group has broken ground on a 13.5-acre industrial development in Earth City, about 20 miles northwest of St. Louis. Johnstone Supply, a wholesale distributor of HVAC equipment, will occupy four acres with a new 45,000-square-foot headquarters and distribution center. Opus will also construct an 111,000-square-foot speculative industrial building on the remaining 9.5 acres. Johnstone’s space will include a training room and product showroom. The spec building will feature 139 car parking stalls, 27 dock positions and a clear height of 32 feet. Construction on both buildings is slated to begin this month with completion scheduled for spring 2021. Opus is the developer, design-builder, architect and engineer. Jake Corrigan and Vince Bajardi of Sansone Group will market the project for lease.
KANSAS CITY, KAN. — Urban Outfitters (Nasdaq: URBN) has announced plans to develop a $350 million omni-channel distribution center near Kansas City. The 880,000-square-foot development will be located on ancillary land owned by the Kansas Speedway in Wyandotte County, roughly 15 miles outside downtown Kansas City. The Philadelphia-based retailer is set to begin construction on the facility this fall with completion scheduled for early 2022. Documents obtained by The Kansas City Star identify Hillwood Development Co. as the developer for the project. Fort Worth, Texas-based Hillwood is led by Ross Perot Jr., son of the late Ross Perot, a billionaire who ran for president twice in the 1990s. Urban Outfitters selects the locations of its distribution centers based on a combination of factors, including location, available workforce and transportation infrastructure. Kansas City’s central location was cited as critical to the company’s distribution network. “Our priorities in identifying the home for our new omni-channel distribution center focused on people, and it was the quality of the local workforce and the commitment of their representatives in the state that convinced us this is the right place to be,” says Dave Ziel, chief development officer of Urban Outfitters. “This facility will be at the …
TEMPLE TERRACE AND LUTZ, FLA. — Amazon will develop a 600,000-square-foot fulfillment center in Temple Terrace. The Seattle-based e-commerce giant expects the facility to open in 2021 and house 750 full-time employees. Employees at the site will pick, pack and ship smaller customer items such as books, electronics, small household goods and toys. In addition, Amazon will hire for roles in human resources, operations management, safety, security, finance and information technology. Temple Terrace is located 17 miles northeast of Tampa International Airport and 10 miles northeast of downtown Tampa. Additionally, Amazon plans to open a last-mile delivery center in Lutz, which is about 10 miles north of Temple Terrace, Fla. The Lutz delivery station is also anticipated to open in 2021.
HAMPSTEAD, MD. — Stag Industrial has signed a book publisher to a 1 million-square-foot industrial lease at 630 Hanover Pike in Hampstead. The lease was effective Aug. 1 and will last for five-and-a-half years with three months of free rent and 3 percent annual rent escalations. The property is situated 30 miles north of downtown Baltimore. As of June 30, Boston-based Stag’s portfolio comprised 457 buildings in 38 states with approximately 91.8 million rentable square feet.
FENTON, MO. — Kadean Construction has completed construction of a new 185,590-square-foot headquarters and logistics facility for 1st Phorm, a manufacturer and distributor of nutrition supplements and athletic apparel. The multi-million-dollar facility is located in Fenton Logistics Park in Fenton, a southwest suburb of St. Louis. The project includes corporate offices, 16 Zoom rooms, a 222-seat education and training auditorium, private library, podcast studio and a 16,000-square-foot athletic facility with a weight training room, basketball court and batting cages. The company is relocating from its headquarters in South St. Louis County and consolidating several warehouses around the St. Louis area. More than 400 employees will work at the building. U.S. Capital Development is the developer and owner of the project. M+H Architects served as architect.
By Brian Niven As we begin to reopen most parts of our society following the COVID-19 pandemic that devastated our country and economy earlier this year, many in the commercial real estate industry are beginning to take stock of the massive shifts it may have put into motion. While the pandemic has decimated many sectors — shuttering retail shops, leaving offices empty and setting off an exodus of urban apartment dwellers — prospects for industrial properties have remained strong. Demand for warehouses of all kinds has been soaring in recent years, largely on the back of the growing e-commerce industry, and the sidelining of brick-and-mortar stores has only strengthened those tailwinds. However, that does not mean that the sector will not face challenges in the years to come. While most of the country’s core markets have a healthy pipeline of dry warehouse development that will help meet demand from users, the same cannot be said for an increasingly essential part of our supply chain — cold storage facilities. Vacancy for cold storage was already at or near zero across the country, but the pandemic has set off a chain of events that is likely to place significant stress on our …
By Nazir Khalfe, Principal, Powers Brown Architecture Having designed multiple millions of square feet of speculative and build-to-suit industrial buildings in my career, I’ve witnessed some striking trends over the past two decades, especially with the advancements made in tilt-wall construction. The ability to go higher and store and ship more product with today’s technology is creating an ever-changing landscape for industrial product. We have witnessed the boom of e-commerce, advancements in logistics and automation, and all the while tried to keep up with the dynamic market forces that produce a successful industrial park. Since the Great Recession, demand for industrial space has been at a premium, not only in Texas but also in most markets throughout the United States. Out of necessity for how our lives are changing, the industrial market has become the darling of the real estate industry. In 2020, thanks to the exponential growth of e-commerce activity and manufacturing jobs, we are breaking new ground on how a standard industrial park looks, feels and operates. While COVID-19 has not changed the expansive, open-space feel of warehouses where social distancing is inherently built-in, the pandemic has started to impact the industrial world on the development side. Developers …