Business park developers doubling up

With construction just under way at Sunridge Business Park, its two developers are already making plans for another 1.8 million square feet of industrial space.

The park's attributes continue to pull developers into southern Dallas County, historically an overlooked and economically disadvantaged area.

Now, developers say the 880-acre park has uncongested proximity to everything that a big-box distributor could want: a major railroad intermodal yard; four major interstate highways, including frontage on Interstate 45 just south of Interstate 20; the huge Dallas regional market; and available work force.

Dallas-based real estate investor Industrial Works Management LLC has started design of its second building for the park. I45 Tradeport 2 is a $30 million, 810,000-square-foot industrial building. A speculative project, it should be completed by the end of 2008, according to company principal Stephen Sanders.

Industrial Works has already started construction of I45 Tradeport 1, a $20 million, 520,000-square-foot speculative building on 30 acres, set for completion in January.

Indianapolis-based Duke Realty Corp. previously announced it is building an 822,000-square-foot distribution center for U.K.-based Unilever. Set for completion in October 2008, the $29 million project sits on 53 acres in the park, said Jeff Thornton, senior vice president of Duke's Dallas operations.

Meanwhile, Duke has purchased 46 acres in Sunridge, and isn't wasting any time getting a site plan in the works to build a 1 million-square-foot building, according to Jeff Turner, Duke executive vice president for the south region.

"Right now in Dallas there are four to five major submarkets, most of which have a lack of developable land," Turner said. "So the eyes of the development community have shifted south."

The project will either be a build-to-suit or speculative construction, Turner said, depending on how the southern Dallas County market absorbs the industrial space now going up.

"When a new location gets hot and a couple of deals show up, we (developers) all want to jump in and see what the water's like," he said. Turner predicts the area is on its way to becoming a highly competitive submarket in Dallas-Fort Worth.

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source: bizjournals.com