Newcomer, Startup Land in Great Southwest

Line-X Franchise Development Corp. signed a one-year lease for 16,200 sf at 3017 Red Hawk Dr. to get the operation up and running while it searches for retail land to hold a 12,000-sf to 18,000-sf build-to-suit, Frank G. Jester II with Dunn Commercial LP in Arlington, tells GlobeSt.com. He and the firm's Katina Real are leading the search for Line-X, a Santa Ana, CA-based company with 350 franchised and owned locations in the US, Canada, Mexico, Asia, Central and South America and Europe.

Line-X, which sprays on truck-bed liners and sells accessories, will use the Red Hawk Drive building, owned by GSW Warehouse LP of Dallas, as a distribution center for franchisees, according to Real. The firm locked down the site in less than two months, deciding on a 48,600-sf building with space that's been empty about six months, the brokers say. The building's quoted rent is $6 per sf, triple net.

Jester says the firm's vice president was in town and cold calling numbers on signs in Grand Prairie. "He says he couldn't find anybody to answer, just voice mail," he recalls, "and I picked up the phone. The rest is history."

At 1118 W. Harris Rd. in Arlington, Light Gauge Solutions will begin making trusses for metal buildings in 10,146 sf. The startup worked out an early move-in for a three-year lease that kicks in Feb. 1, Jester says.

Jester, again teaming with Real, put the firm into a 90%-leased, two-building industrial park owned by Yong Rhee of Korea. The deal, also the result of a call based on a sign, takes the 34,000-sf building to 100% occupancy, according to Jester. The light manufacturing space is on the market for $4.50 per sf gross.