25-Acre Purchase Forges 450,000-SF Plan

Granite has been negotiating with Atlanta-based Seefried for about a year for the tract, which has been plotted to hold up to 450,000 sf of shallow-bay distribution buildings. The first building of 140,000 sf in the set of three on the drawing board will break ground in late 2003 or early 2004, Gregory P. Fuller, Granite's managing director in Dallas, tells GlobeSt.com. The product will rise speculative if necessary although the team intends to be pounding the pavement for some pre-leasing.

In closing the deal, Granite shored up a key position south of the airport to be worked in conjunction with its Lakeside Business Center to the north. The Riverpark Business Center is nestled in the Fort Worth bounds of far northeast Tarrant County, an area that's attracted many of the leading industrial developers due to its airport ties. Land in the area ranges from $2 per sf to $3 per sf.

Riverpark Business Center is a design of Hardy-McCullough Architects of Dallas. The buildings will feature 24-foot clear heights in designs ranging from 100,000 sf to 150,000 sf.

Meanwhile, Lakeside Business Center in Flower Mound will break ground in early summer so it can deliver in first quarter 2004. Fuller says the general contractor's award is about to be doled out for the two-building first phase.

Fuller says Granite's always on the look-out for development opportunities, but for now it's comfortable focusing on the "airport concentric" plan made possible by the latest acquisition. "We'd like to get these projects up and leased before we go too much further," he says.