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PITTSTOWN TWP., PA-Kimberly-Clark Global Sales Inc. has signed a lease for 744,080 sf in CenterPoint Commerce & Trade Park East. This takes up more than half of the 1.1-million-sf spec industrial development Wilkes-Barre-based Mericle Commercial Real Estate Services began readying for construction this May, as GlobeSt.com previously reported.

Lee Fein and Michael Zerbe, SVPs in the Philadelphia office of Colliers Lanard & Axilbund, represented Kimberly-Clark in the negotiations, and Mericle spoke for itself. The terms and aggregate value of the deal are undisclosed. This September, Jim Cummings, Mericle's VP of marketing, told GlobeSt.com that the market rate for new class A spec industrial space in this area ranges from $4 per sf to $5 per sf.

The Kimberly-Clark facility is located at 325 CenterPoint Blvd. Fein says it encompasses two Mericle spec buildings, which the developer is combining for the new tenant. Dallas-based Kimberly-Clark is a global supplier of healthcare and hygiene products that employs more than 55,000 worldwide and reported sales of $16.7 billion in 2006.

CenterPoint Commerce & Trade Park East is a 377-acre industrial center at which Lowe's Cos. Inc, is currently building a 1.4-million-sf distribution center. Other tenants in the park include FedEx Ground in an 88,000-sf build-to-suit, and a 300,000-sf distribution building that began as a spec facility and is now fully leased to Men's Wearhouse.