AURORA, ILL. — The Chicago office of Duke Realty Corp. is developing a 242,372-square-foot, build-to-suit corporate headquarters and warehouse for Shorr Packaging Corp, a distributor of packaging products, equipment and services. The new facility is being constructed on 13 acres in Butterfield Corporate Park, Duke Realty’s multi-building industrial campus located off I-88 in Aurora. Shorr Packaging will consolidate operations from a 120,000-square-foot building it owns in Meridian Business Park, a 34,000-square-foot space in the Meridian Business Park it leases from Duke Realty and 36,127 square feet it leases in another building in Aurora. Trevor Ragsdale of JLL represented Shorr Packaging. Susan Bergdoll of Duke Realty, along with Traci Payette, David Prell and John Suerth of CBRE, represented Duke Realty. Construction on Shorr Packaging’s new facility in Butterfield Corporate Park is slated to begin this summer with delivery in spring 2016.
The New Jersey industrial market is experiencing a renaissance of sorts with robust leasing activity in both Northern and Central regions of the state, increasing asking rents and more than 4.5 million square feet of industrial space delivered in 2014. All of these factors point to an even stronger 2015 as developers take advantage of improving market conditions. As we continue to see users and investors competing for the same properties, which in turn creates bidding contests resulting in higher sale prices, we pause and ask, “Can users compete with investors in this environment? And furthermore, should they?” To answer these questions, we need to look back at how we arrived at the current conditions. Towards the fourth quarter of 2013, asking rents and vacancy rates seemed to reach equilibrium. For each quarter after, asking rents steadily increased and vacancy dropped as demand rose. In the fourth quarter of 2014, vacancy in Central New Jersey fell to 7.2 percent, and asking rents rose from $5.35 to $5.42 per square foot with increasing demand along the New Jersey Turnpike corridor. Throughout the year, positive absorption totaled more than 2 million square feet in this region, making it the sixth year in …
ELK GROVE VILLAGE, ILL. — Entre Commercial Realty has arranged the $2.3 million sale of a 41,600-square-foot industrial facility in Elk Grove Village. Horizon Logistics Inc., which is doing business as Seko Logistics, acquired the property located at 801 Lunt Ave. The free standing, single-tenant building is in close proximity to I-90, I-355 and O’Hare International Airport. Jonathan Kohn and Ron Behm of Colliers International represented the seller, Prologis. Tom Boucher and Dan Jones of Entre Commercial Realty represented Horizon Logistics. Seko Logistics is a 39-year-old global firm that specializes in transportation, logistics, freight forwarding and warehousing.
BLUFFTON, IND. — Stan Johnson Co. has arranged the $20.5 million sale-leaseback of an industrial facility in Bluffton. The property, which is leased to Alexin LLC, is located at 1390 South Adams St. Ken Hedrick, Jerry Hopkins, D. Andrew Ragsdale and Scott Briggs of Stan Johnson Co. represented the seller and the buyer in the corporate sale-leaseback transaction. The 90,108-square-foot facility was built in 2009. The location currently serves as Alexin’s headquarters and aluminum casting facility.
Manufacturing was instrumental in driving the United States economy out of the recession. With Greenville-Spartanburg having a high ratio of manufacturing to warehouse space, the region’s industrial market has been ahead of the national market in terms of growth. Greenville-Spartanburg is first and foremost an industrial market with approximately 160 million square feet of manufacturing, warehouse and flex space. This is larger than the industrial markets in Columbia and Charleston combined. For five consecutive years vacancy has declined and absorption has been consistently positive. Vacancy currently sits at a record 7.3 percent and has been there for several quarters, not moving down further mostly due to lack of product. Annual net absorption topped 4.3 million square feet in 2012 and 2013, and dropped down to 2.5 million in 2014. Space that does not exist cannot be absorbed. Developers are aggressively responding to this lack of product with more than 3 million square feet of space expected to be built in 2015. Over 1.3 million square feet of that space is considered speculative, meaning construction started before occupancy was achieved. Both numbers represent the highest amounts of construction since CBRE began tracking the Greenville-Spartanburg industrial market in 2001. Absorption in 2015 …
COTTAGE GROVE, MINN. — Hillcrest Development LLLP and The Opus Group will develop a 40-acre industrial business park in Cottage Grove. The property is located south of U.S. Highway 61 at the northwest corner of Hemingway Avenue South and 91st St. South adjacent to Hamlet Park. Plans for the site include a variety of development scenarios ranging from 425,000 to 550,000 square feet of rail-served industrial space with the ability to support a 38-foot ceiling height and outside storage. Canadian Pacific will provide rail service to the site.
For years the Omaha industrial market — approximately 68 million square feet strong — seemed to be slow and steady. When the market tightened, developers were still able to meet demand. Over the past 15 years, companies looking to construct new facilities have historically had an ample number of options in which to relocate along I-80 in the southwest part of the metro area. The Great Recession of the late 2000s seemingly halted speculative construction. During the rebound of the early 2010s, the vacancy rate began to steadily decline. Tenants started to absorb excess space at a healthy clip. All of a sudden, the market has begun to face two overwhelming challenges: virtually full occupancy among rental space and few readily available land options to build new product. Space Users Stay Active Industrial vacancy in Omaha has continued to plummet, ending 2014 at a 3 percent vacancy rate. Both large national companies and local businesses have accounted for the healthy absorption of space. Sergeant’s Pet Care Products (which built 349,680 square feet), Airlite Plastics (71,272 square feet), and Election Systems & Software (40,000 square feet) all increased their footprint in 2014. Additionally, several smaller transactions have occurred this year. Companies …
TWINSBURG, OHIO — Meridian Design Build has begun construction on a new 207,360-square-foot, speculative industrial building in Twinsburg. Scannell Properties is the developer for the project. The multi-tenant facility is located on a 14-acre site within Cornerstone Business Park. The new spec building will include 171 auto parking stalls, five tenant entrances and 26 loading docks. The building is scheduled for completion in late summer. Precept Design LLC is providing architectural services for the project. Weber Engineering Services is completing civil engineering work.
Be careful what you wish for, industrial brokers. After years of recession, brokers have been given a second life. Virtually every broker we talk to can appreciate the boom this time around. The Las Vegas industrial market has seen positive absorption nearing pre-recession highs. With land selling, occupancy rising and major players vying for any asset, the forecast should remain bright for the next 12 to 24 months. Nearly 3,000 acres of industrial, commercial and residential land was sold in 2014, accounting for more than $700 million in sales volume. Las Vegas’ industrial vacancy was around 9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014, a low since 2008. The fourth quarter also marked the eighth consecutive quarter of positive net absorption in Southern Nevada’s industrial market. All good news. The marketplace is swelling with credibility. Panattoni Development Co. bought a 103,000-square-foot industrial building and is developing another 200,000 square feet in the southwest market. ProLogis is developing several big box developments in North Las Vegas. Dermody Properties is reportedly developing industrial space this year, too . One key component of these new developments is that Las Vegas’ Class A criteria needle is moving upward, with 30- to 32-foot clear big …
FRANKLIN, WIS. — Marcus & Millichap has arranged the $33 million sale of two industrial buildings totaling 418,000 square feet in Franklin, approximately 20 miles south of Milwaukee. The properties are 1 and 2 World Packaging Circle, located within the 425-acre Franklin Business Park with frontage on South Oakwood Park Drive and Ryan Road. The property has access to I-94, I-894, U.S. Highway 41, U.S. Highway 45 and State Trunk Highway 36. The two facilities were built of precast tilt-up concrete on 37.6 acres in 2006. Features at the properties include 30-foot to 40-foot ceiling heights, enclosed docks, two 75-ton cranes, two 10-ton cranes and heated underground parking. Thomas Kopatich of Marcus & Millichap’s Milwaukee office represented the seller, a local business person, and the buyer, a private equity fund.