The Houston-based EGL Eagle signed a 10-year lease in May with AMB to take down a 21-acre site that the developer had ground leased at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport last January. James McGill, senior vice president of development of the west central region for San Francisco-based AMB, tells GlobeSt.com that the developer originally planned to build two spec buildings on the site at West Airfield Drive and West 17th Street. "Then Eagle came along and we switched gears," he says.

The AMB DFW Logistics Center IV, carrying an all-in development tab of $18 million, will sit about a half mile northwest of the West Cargo area. Alliance Architects Inc. of Dallas has designed an air cargo distribution facility with docks on three sides and 32-foot clear heights. Cadence McShane Corp., also from Dallas, is the general contractor for the project just like it was for AMB's other on-airport project, AMB DFW Logistics Center I at 1060 N. Airfield Dr., where there are still 13 acres to develop with its JV partner, Atlanta-based Seefried Properties Inc.

McGill says there is a proposal on the table to lease another one-acre tract to expand the trailer court for Eagle, but no decision has been made. Walter Floyd, principal of NAI Huff Partners of Fort Worth is Eagle's local broker while Rick Medinis, executive vice president of NAI Robert Lynn in Dallas, represents AMB.

Eagle currently leases 767,200 sf from AMB in Singapore, Boston, Seattle, Dallas and Austin, with the latest BTS agreement pushing the total to nearly 1.2 million sf. In Dallas/Fort Worth, the logistics company occupies leased space at 620 Westport Pkwy. in Grapevine, also on the airport's doorstep, and has another division, the Select Carrier Group, in Seefried's RiverPark Business Park, which is near the US Hwy. 360 and 183 split in Fort Worth and just two miles from the airport. McGill says Eagle leases additional space from AMB in the Westport area as well.

"They really wanted to have everyone under one roof," McGill says. But, the decision also was dual-pronged: the BTS will stand up to the Transportation Safety Administration's most current litmus test for a fully secured facility to better control and scrutinize airfreight packages. He says the office/warehouse BTS, with 43,000 sf of office space, will have a fenced truck court with a guard shack, possibly to be manned 24/7. "We're seeing that a lot with bigger users," he says. "Security is becoming a much bigger issue."