Hillwood's Double Deal Fills 367,815-SF Office/Warehouse

HASLET, TX-Ending a dry spell for a long-term tenant, Hillwood has filled a 367,815-sf office/warehouse that's been mostly empty for two years. The publicly traded Teleflex Inc. is moving product into 303,815 sf while the balance rolls next month to Hillwood Operating Co., known in the inner circle as the concierge service for AllianceTexas.

Teleflex Medical, signing a seven-year lease, is in the process of closing distribution centers in Illinois and California and moving into Westport 3 at 920 Westport Parkway, which will be the supply portal for customers in the South and Central US, J. Holmes Davis IV, senior vice president for Philadelphia-based Binswanger/CBB, tells GlobeSt.com. When the moves are done, Teleflex will gain about 80,000 sf, he says.

Davis and Binswanger's Bob Boyle began scouring the metroplex for a site in May, working under a tight timeframe to get Teleflex in place by September. "It was a quick turnaround, for sure," Davis says. The Limerick, PA-based Teleflex, with operations in 26 countries, supplies medical devices, surgical instruments and disposable medical products to hospitals and physicians.

Davis says the drivers for the just-signed deal were Triple Freeport, Foreign Trade Zone and minimal tenant improvements. "It fit to a 'T,'" he adds. "That's the beauty of it."

Hillwood's marketing manager Tony Creme says Teleflex is lighting 220,000 sf this year and will take over the balance of its leased area in 2006. Talks went full circle in 30 days to meet Teleflex's September deadline, he says.

With the Teleflex deal done, Hillwood's in-house operating company will move into the 64,000-sf balance, exiting Westport 9 at 400 Intermodal Parkway so Triangle Logistics, a 240,237-sf tenant, can take over its expansion space. Both companies get keys in October, says Creme, who teamed with Bob Alter, group vice president of marketing, to work out the double play.

The Hillwood team has signed more than 2.5 million sf of deals this year, of which Teleflex is the second largest one. ATC Logistics out-leased the newcomer by 71,185 sf. "The market is definitely picking up," Creme says. "If the activity continues, we're definitely going to need more space." Hillwood's decisionmakers have been huddling over raising some spec space, office and industrial. A decision, he says, could be made in four to six weeks.