The lone building in the Tradepoint Business Park, situated on the northeast corner of Bethel Road and Royal Lane, is half leased to Mohawk Industries. Hillwood will manage Tradepoint One at 980 Bethel Rd., but has outsourced leasing to Holt Lunsford of Dallas-based Holt Cos., who also brokered the transaction.

Tal Hicks, president of Hillwood Investment Properties, tells GlobeSt.com that there aren't any letters of intent in hand for the rest of the building, but he's optimistic that the space will be filled in a few months and Hillwood can then turn its attention to a second development phase. It could be a 950,000-sf "from the ground up" project or a 350,000-sf expansion of the existing structure. The acquisition included 70 acres of undeveloped land that will mark Hillwood's first development venture in the Coppell submarket.

Hillwood isn't changing its strategy, but has started buying existing product in its homeport and other major markets. The Tradepoint acquisition comes on the heels of a four-building, 200,000-sf purchase in Southern California. Before the month's out, Hillwood will close on an industrial asset in the 300,000-sf range in northwest Dallas. Just four months ago, the high-roller bought a 472,200-sf building in Garland from Chicago-based First Industrial Realty Trust.

"Hillwood has the resources and the philosophy to be an aggressive buyer of existing buildings, not only in North Texas, but across the country," Hillwood Investments CEO Todd Platt said in a press release. "With more than 19 million square feet of industrial buildings, we are constantly evaluating acquisitions that further our industrial strategy."

Hicks says Hillwood is "more apt to buy existing buildings, particularly one-off buildings" in a slower economy. He says Tradepoint went under contract within a few weeks of hitting the market, with Hillwood beating out at least five others for the asset. "It's very well-located industrial land and a building in a market with an increasingly short supply of land at a reasonable price," he says. "It really is a seller's market if you've got a good piece of property."

The Coppell numbers tell the story: 2002 absorption was more than 2.7 million sf, up about 1.6 million sf from 2001. At the end of Q4 2002, the submarket had a 15.5% vacancy in its 37.5-million-sf industrial inventory, according to Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc. More than 1.3 million sf delivered in 2002, with 368,640 under construction at the year's end.

About two years ago, Hillwood bought a 150,000-sf building at 100 S. Royal Lane in Coppell and sold it last year to Stone Panels. Tradepoint Business Park's destiny is a long-term hold. The Dallas-based Champion delivered Tradepoint One in November 2001 and turned over the keys to Mohawk for its share of the cross-dock building in Q2 2002. "In addition to a Fortune 500 tenant, the existing building already has a five-year, 75% tax abatement and Triple Freeport," Hicks said in a press release, "so we have a tremendous start in marketing the project."