But ProLogis officials are confident they can lease up their newest venture based on the success of their first fully-leased 134,000-sf building.
"We're very positive about the southwest market where these facilities are going," ProLogis vice president and market officer Tim Bahr tells GlobeSt.com.
The company has a third structure on the drawing board that would bring its inventory at the park to 430,000 sf.
Bahr's optimism isn't shared by all market professionals, however. "I don't want to say gloom and doom, but I would probably be a bit more cautious" in erecting spec projects in a softening economy, Billy Thomas, senior industrial spelcialist with Grubb & Ellis Bissell Patrick, tells GlobeSt.com.
A slowdown of industrial construction in the past two years has mainly affected smaller users, Thomas says, "but deals of 100,000 sf or more have kept right on coming."
He says, "Our vacancy rates have crept up to 12% because of spec projects such as ProLogis' which could make the numbers creep even higher."
But the broker, like Bahr of ProLogis, remains confident the vacancy numbers will come down in time. "We've always absorbed the space," Thomas says.
He says the area has been highly active not only because of the Interstate 485 intersection but also because it is within a half-mile or so of another stragetic area, Interstate 77.
Charlotte should continue as a hot distribution market in general because of its location, Thomas says.
He speculates that ProLogis and other spec builders are banking on some large tenants taking over 100,000 sf to quickly fill the new building and the third one after that.
Bahr wouldn't disclose hard construction costs but construction industry estimators familiar with comparable jobs tell GlobeSt.com the three buildings easily would equate to a $30 million investment for ProLogis based on an average $75 per sf cost.
The ProLogis executive also wouldn't disclose average rents at the buildings but area brokers tell GlobeSt.com rates are about $3.40 per sf to $3.60 per sf.
ProLogis owns, manages or has under development 191.3 million sf of distribution facilities in 98 global markets, according to the company's Web site. The company's only holdings in the Carolinas are in Charlotte where it has about four million sf.
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