COMPTON, CA—Trammell Crow Co. has broken ground on the Brickyard, a two-building, 1-million-square-foot industrial property in Compton, CA. The developer is building the property with its joint venture partner Principal Real Estate Investors. The property is scheduled to open in July 2016.

"As a rule, we try to develop the best buildings in the best locations—but rarely is that proposal as obvious as it is with the Brickyard," Greg Ames, managing director in Trammell Crow Co.'s SoCal, Los Angeles office, tells GlobeSt.com. "A lot of people see us as a better, closer, more cost effective option than the Inland Empire.  We understand that it doesn't make sense to move product two hours away, and then turn around and haul it all the way back to its actual destination - if and only if there is a better alternative.  As a result, we designed the Brickyard specifically to meet the needs of high throughput users, with low coverage, excess parking, and the ability to fully secure the site.  The truth though, is that this development is probably equally compelling for a number of operators who are already in South Bay, who are outgrowing their space, or even those who are divided up into two, three, four, or sometimes more buildings just due to lack of supply of larger buildings.  So as a development, there is demand for The Brickyard coming from a lot of directions; the appeal is wide – and we are excited to deliver it in summer of 2016."

The larger of the two buildings will be 525,000-square-feet with 88 dock high doors with a cross dock configuration, 270 parking spaces, and 185-to-240-foot full concrete yard. The second, smaller building is still a large big box at 481,000-square-feet with 111 dock high doors with a cross dock configuration, 307 parking spaces, and a 185-foot full concrete yard. Both buildings will also include 10,000 square feet of office space and will have class-A features, like 36-foot clear heights and will be LEED Gold certified, in addition to other features.

Although Compton isn't typically known as a prime industrial market, its natural location near LAX and the ports makes a natural spot for industrial users. The Brickyard in particular will be located seven miles from LAX and 10 miles from the ports. "Overall, the South Bay industrial market is over 217 million square feet, with a little less than 2% vacancy, which is indicative of both the overall attractiveness of the submarket and the general lack of supply," says Ames. "The location is minutes from the Port of Los Angeles, the Port of Long Beach, and even LAX - giving it a substantial advantage not just in drayage costs, but also in the number of turns a driver can make to the ports in a given day, so it is very efficient.  Then you compound that with the fact that you can reach about 10 million people in a 45-minute drive, and you have a phenomenal location for distribution and logistics."

The neighboring markets also have an industrial vacancy rate of less than 2%, and the developers expect the market will quickly absorb the additional and highly in demand space.