$6M First Phase Ready to Start in 25-Acre RiverPark Business Center

"We are working a couple deals," Greg Fuller, managing director for Dallas-based Granite Properties, tells GlobeSt.com. "I fully expect it will be 30% occupied when we open the doors." RiverPark Business Center, positioned along Trinity Boulevard, is a micro-market play to draft tenants from older buildings in the Great Southwest Industrial Park and close-in locations to the D/FW International Airport, he says.

The RiverPark structure, set to rise on nine acres, is geared toward 10,000-sf to 20,000-sf users. "That is the only thing there is a need for," Fuller says, citing panel discussions at yesterday's ULI North Texas District Council conference.

Granite acquired the land about two years ago. The motivation to develop is "an alternative investment choice," Fuller says. "It's difficult to ramp up the portfolio with acquisitions because of prices. So, we are trying to develop our way. The returns on development are still better than the returns on acquisitions."

Granite has only one Great Southwest building--the 228,000-sf Hilltop Business Center--in its 1.5-million-sf industrial portfolio. And, it's fully leased.

Fuller says RiverPark's first space is being marketed at $4.75 per sf with a $5 per sf finish-out allowance. Michael Stanzel and Rick Medinis with the Robert Lynn Co. in Dallas are leasing the project, designed with 24-foot clear height, 160-foot depth, up to 50% office finish-out, extra-wide truck courts and a higher-than-usual parking ratio.

The Dallas-based Hardy McCullah/MLM Architects Inc. designed the building, which is similar to Granite's Lakeside Commerce Center development in Flower Mound. Ridgemont Construction Co., also from Dallas, is the general contractor.