SAN FRANCISCO-Industrial REIT AMB Property Corp. plans to expand its development pipeline from $914 million in 2006 to a target of approximately $1.6 billion per year by 2010. The company, which has been expanding its development activities globally over the past five years, will concentrate the new development on industrial distribution space in major markets tied to global trade.

The new development initiative will build on the momentum that the company has achieved since 2002, when it began a tenfold expansion of its development activities leading to the $914 million of new projects in 2006. The program has also included dispositions and the recycling of capital back into the publicly held company's development pipeline.

Hamid Moghadam, AMB's chairman and CEO, says that despite the expansion thus far, the company believes that opportunity for continued growth is "greater than it ever has been." The company plans to strengthen its balance sheet to prepare for the growth, Moghadam says.

Plans for the new development mark the second major recent initiative by the REIT, subsidiaries of which recently entered into a loan agreement for a $305-million financing. The financing, as reported on GlobeSt.com, was secured by 60 buildings and included most of the Alvarado Business Center in San Leandro.

The company already has a number of its new developments in the works, including the Siziano Business Park, a planned 1.5-million-sf development in Milan, Italy for which it broke ground recently. AMB is developing the park in partnership with Redilco Group, a Milan-based real estate company.

In its most recent public filings, AMB reported that it owned or had investments in properties and development projects expected to total approximately 124.7 million sf and 1,088 buildings in 39 markets in 12 countries. AMB invests in properties located predominantly in the infill submarkets of its targeted markets. The company's properties typically are located near airports, seaports and ground transportation systems.