JUAREZ, MEXICO-This flourishing trade town has yielded two hefty industrial leases for ProLogis totaling 240,000 sf, headlined by a 180,000-sf transaction to local logistics distribution company Jorsa Logistics. That firm and new tenant EP Logistics will use ProLogis Park Independencia to provide regional distribution and warehousing services for clients in Juarez.

"We are very pleased to have these new agreements," says Silvano Solis, SVP and regional director for ProLogis in Mexico. "We look forward to serving our customers at their new locations, and to expanding our Juarez platform through additional acquisition and new development." According to Solis, the city's substantial labor pool and access to the US a few miles away at El Paso are key drawing points for industrial space users. Sporting a population of 1.3 million, Juarez is said to have the third largest concentration of industrial space in North America, with favorable trade agreements having led to even more construction of assembly plants and warehouse facilities this decade.

Nearly 10% of the 12.7 million sf of industrial supply ProLogis controls in Mexico is located in Juarez, and the latest spate of leasing is encouraging company officials to speed up the launch of a second phase at its Independencia complex. That initiative involves construction of two new facilities, and Denver-based ProLogis has additional land sites that could produce even more supply, says Solis. In total, upwards of 400,000 sf of new supply could be underway in the city by year's end, estimates Solis.

"Juarez is definitely a target market of ours," Solis tells GlobeSt.com. "We're very bullish on what is happening there." The company has a larger block of inventory in Mexico City and Reynosa, each totaling around three million sf, but Solis says ProLogis could ultimately approach those levels in Juarez. Increasingly, he says, distribution facilities are being intertwined with existing manufacturing plants in the city, bucking a history of keeping those concentrated in El Paso. ProLogis sees Mexico overall as a strong growth area, with operations in five major markets, says Solis, adding that the firm is examining three other regions in the country that hold promise for future growth.

On the ProLogis team for nearly two years, Solis has been active in Mexico's industrial CRE sector since the early 1990s, and acknowledges a dramatic change in that market. The improving Mexican economy is not only leading to new opportunities for helping overseas companies, but also to support the growing middle class in Mexico, he says. "It has evolved tremendously," relays Solis, and the need for modern distribution space is increasingly evident. Besides offering structural advancements such as 30-foot clear heights that can accommodate a range of uses, Solis says the product being created is also trying to meet green-building standards, as in the case of that being delivered at ProLogis Park Independencia.