Opus Gets Dibs on 200 Acres of Big Box Land

"If we come up with a user, then we're going to buy the property," Steve Chilton, Opus' real estate director, tells GlobeSt.com about Terrell Business Park, 250 acres ticketed for big-box, industrial development, commercial and retail with full visibility from the interstate. The land is situated 20 miles east of Dallas, right across the interstate from Metrocrest, a 90%-leased warehouse and distribution development with five Fortune 500 companies.

Chilton says the Phoenix-based Opus West's Texas division got dibs on the land as a result of a longstanding relationship with the owning partnership, made up of Dallas/Fort Worth investors and San Francisco-based Silverwing Development principals Wayne Batavia and Jeff Robinson. "This was a way for us to control some land and buy it when we land the build-to-suit," Chilton says, adding that the take-down will come as users are signed. He didn't rule out that Opus might raise some spec product as the development takes root at the interstate's junction with FM 148. Some 45 to 50 acres have been set aside for commercial and retail development.

Raw land in the stomping grounds of Hollywood's Chuck Norris is bringing $1 per sf, considerably less than the going rate in neighboring Tarrant and Dallas counties, where developers spent most of last year buying up the closer-in Interstate 20 land. Although the land prices vary, construction costs do not and warehouse product like Opus is hoping to raise would come with a tab of $2.75 per sf to $3.50 per sf.

Chilton says industrial boxes, as predicted two years ago, are growing in size and following the lead set in Southern California. "We're tracking six million sf of over 600,000-sf buildings right now. The deals are getting larger and larger," he says. "There are more consolidations of distribution facilities and there are seven markets they're consolidating to and Dallas/Fort Worth is one of them. I think we'll see a half dozen of these deals of 750,000 sf to one million sf every year for the next few years." He says conditions are such that he's optimistic ground will break at year's end or shortly after 2005 begins.