SUWANEE, GA-Meggitt Defense Systems' Firearms Training Systems (FATS) has signed a 10-year lease for a $15-million, 205,645-sf build-to-suit facility on Brogdon Road at Suwanee Point Business Center. The facility, on a 16-acre site within the 50-acre master planned business services and distribution park in the Buford Highway and Peachtree Industrial submarket, will house the FATS headquarters.

Locally based Taylor & Mathis has begun construction on the facility, which is expected to open in February 2008. Meggitt Defense Systems provides training systems and defense systems used by militaries, law enforcement and security agencies around the world.

King Realty's Jeremy Watkins, Mike Boone and Charlie King represented FATS in the transaction and Mike Irby and Walker Welford represented Taylor & Mathis. Irby tells GlobeSt.com that the new facility represents a relocation, consolidation and expansion for Meggitt Defense Systems.

"Suwanee Pointe Business Park is perfectly poised to accommodate our future growth opportunities as technology continues to advance," says Meggitt Defense Systems FATS/Caswell president Ron Mohling.

The facility will include approximately 80,000 sf of office space, along with light manufacturing and warehousing in support of the operations, which will include manufacture of virtual live-fire training systems.

Irby says Taylor & Mathis recently completed two speculative buildings with a total of 230,000 sf at Suwanee Pointe Business Center. "This is a great deal for us because it's a high-profile company," he says. "It's light manufacturing which is a pretty coveted use."