ARLINGTON, TX-After months of scouting the terrain, Android Industries is nearing decision time on a 900,000-sf build-to-suit in the Great Southwest Industrial District. Sources tell GlobeSt.com that the project could start in "three or four months, if not sooner."
According to its website, the Wixom, MI-based company is holding the largest sequencing contract ever awarded by General Motors Corp. The firm now occupies about 700,000 sf in three buildings owned by ProLogis, the Aurora, CO-based REIT that just merged yesterday with San Francisco's Catellus. Though several development options have been laid on its doorstep, Android Industries is intent on staying close to the GM Arlington plant at 2525 E. Abram St.
Sources say ProLogis is deep in talks with a street-savvy group that's holding purchase contracts for several run-down properties with enough land mass to seat the Android build-to-suit, including a must-have requirement for a rail-served site. A ProLogis spokesman says there is no announcement at this time about a Dallas-area project.
The development circuit has been quietly eyeing the Great Southwest deal since February when a Jones Lang LaSalle broker started shopping the market on behalf of Android Industries for 45 to 50 acres. "We did look at it. We could fit the building at Grand Lakes, but it appears they want to be in Arlington," Jeff Thornton, senior leasing representative for the Indianapolis-based Duke Realty Corp., confirms for GlobeSt.com. "Everyone's trying to figure out how to fit them. It will be a good win for somebody." Duke's Grand Lakes is 130 acres of rail-served land, but it's in Grand Prairie, about five miles east of the GM plant.
Other Great Southwest experts say the Arlington requirement limits the decision to "two or three" because of land availability and the rail-served requirement. Other large landowners in the 250-acre GM plant's vicinity are the Atlanta-based Seefried Properties and Granite Properties of Dallas. The latter says it's not in talks for the deal and Seefried didn't return a telephone call to discuss it.
Android's demand to stay in Arlington will be costly. Sources believe the cost to acquire the properties, situated along the plant's Division Street border, and the going rate for construction materials have pushed the price to $65 per sf or roughly $20 per sf to $30 per sf higher than the market for specialized warehouse product. If the project becomes reality, Android will get its sixth sequencing facility in the US. It has two in Flint, MI and one each in Doraville, GA, Shreveport, LA and Fremont, CA.
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