$5M Expansion Plan Fuels Land Buy

Crown Equipment Corp., a New Bremen, OH-based electric lift truck manufacturer, expects to be in the leasing and maintenance center by the end of 2005. Mark Manuel, Crown's vice president of development, tells GlobeSt.com that corporate execs picked the site--the northwest corner of Interstate 20 and US Highway 360--because of its high-profile location and standing as one of the few tracts along the interstate that isn't developer-controlled.

Freytag & Associates of Sidney, OH will design the facility and subsequently tap a local architect to guide the project through the municipal process. A general contractor will be selected via a bid process, Manuel says.

Crown started looking at Great Southwest properties, including existing buildings, in January. "We just couldn't find one," says J. Holmes Davis IV, senior vice president in Dallas for Philadelphia-based Binswanger Real Estate. Not only did Crown get freeway-fronting land, but it got "an attractive price" for the key parcel, Davis says of the acquisition from locally based Ridge Properties. He and Binswanger vice president Grady Barrett steered the site search.

Manuel estimates the all-in cost will run about $5 million for the new center, which has yet to be designed. The corporation became a Great Southwest tenant in January when it bought one of its independent dealerships, inheriting about 45,000 sf in two buildings at 2891 112th Ave. in Grand Prairie. Crown's growth plans and its preference to own jumpstarted the search, Manuel explains, adding the new facility will be ready to occupy just a few months before the lease expires.

Crown employs about 100 workers in the leasing and maintenance operation. "Dallas is an attractive market in terms of material handling," Manuel says, adding that the company also has operations in Waco and Austin.