ST. LOUIS—The metro area of St. Louis is growing more important as a regional distribution center, and developers are ramping up projects that will fulfill the escalating demand. Joint venture partners PCCP and TriStar Properties have just launched the development of another two class A industrial distribution warehouse buildings totaling 1.1 million square feet in Edwardsville, Il, just across the river from the city of St. Louis.

The development, located within Gateway Commerce Center, will feature a 32' clear height 520,980-square-foot building and a 36' clear height 618,450-square-foot building. The partners have already begun construction and plan deliver the first building by September 2016 and complete the second in January 2017.

PCCP, a national finance company, and TriStar have previously partnered on two successful projects at Gateway. As reported in GlobeSt.com, in June 2014, the joint venture developed the first speculative industrial building in the market since 2009, a 673,137-square-foot, 32' clear height distribution facility that was fully pre-leased during development to Saddle Creek Corp. a 3PL company. Then in August 2015, PCCP and TriStar began development of a 717,060-square-foot, 36' clear height distribution facility. Construction was completed January 2016 and, in a big boost for the region, Amazon signed a lease for the entire building.

“There are a lot of people looking to serve the St. Louis area,” Dorian Farhang, assistant vice president with PCCP, tells GlobeSt.com. “There was nothing built here for about five years, and then we started to see new demand from e-commerce users.” Therefore, “we believe we will once again see strong leasing activity prior to completion of construction.”

In the past, most distribution facilities here served the immediate metropolitan area. However, Gateway Commerce Center lies within 500 miles of one-third of the US population and within 1,500 miles of 90% of the US population. And the St. Louis region has begun to see corporations establish operations that serve the Midwest. Farhang points to Hershey, which has a supra-regional distribution center nearby, as a good example of “what we will see more of in the future.”

Instant Insights /

Industrial Development Hitting a High in St. Louis

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