Spec Office Project Piggybacks with 43,000-SF BTS

Infrastructure work has just started for a build-to-suit leased for 10 years to Snap-on Inc., Demian Salmon, Jackson-Shaw's project director, tells GlobeSt.com. The building delivers in late February and most likely will trigger the sale of Snap-on's existing DFW site, 18,000-sf office-warehouse building in the Great Southwest Industrial Park.

The $7 million-plus project started unfolding in late July and is on track despite the economy, terrorists' attacks in New York City and Washington, DC and the US retaliation of recent days. Salmon says Jackson-Shaw is confident that a niche in the CentrePort market will facilitate lease-up. The building is tailored for tenants needing as little as 6,000 sf whereas most of its neighbors can't go under 12,000 sf. "There's an opportunity there," he says.

Gromatsky-Dupree Architects of Dallas designed the single-story buildings for Jackson-Shaw's construction crews. SMR of Dallas is the landscape architect.

The Snap-on BTS will deliver with 50% office finish to accommodate regional offices, distribution, sales and marketing staffs and training space. It's also a prototype for the Kenosha, WI-based tool manufacturer and distributor that plans to roll possibly three Dallas-Ft. Worth locations into the location, according to Salmon.

William Guthrey, Koll's vice president of marketing, says CentrePort land ranges from $3 per sf for industrial use up to $14 per sf for retail projects. Jackson-Shaw's acreage is along Diplomacy Road and has frontage along Texas 183. But it's the neighborhood that has caught Jackson-Shaw's attention: a 50,000-sf Office Max call center and an equally as large corporate pilot training facility and a 270,000-sf teleco hotel. The Jackson-Shaw duo, says Guthrey, is "good rounded activity with the development that's out there."

Colliers International teams from Dallas and Milwaukee handled the land sale and lease negotiations. The Dallas team consisted of John Aldrich, president, and Benton Rutledge, and the Milwaukee contingent was Patricia Lange and Bill Quinlivan.