EXCLUSIVE: TCC Poised to Launch Nearly 2M-SF Industrial Project

DALLAS-With 100 acres of South Dallas land fueling the play, Trammell Crow Co. will break ground Friday on a 531,254-sf first phase to a 1.73-million-sf industrial development. Based on today's construction costs, the tab to raise the entire development, including a $2.8-million road extension, will push $65 million.

The first spec space will deliver in September, a 29.66-acre warehouse that's already piqued interest from the distribution sector, particularly Nafta Highway users. "There is some activity, but we're not waiting for the deals to make," Scott Krikorian, TCC principal, tells GlobeSt.com. "We're going to start it now."

Krikorian says TCC bought 100 acres in November, practically at the crossroads of interstates 20 and 35. "We did try to get more land, but we couldn't," he says. "But, this did what we needed. We felt good about this location." When work begins, the 1-20 distribution project will be the largest bulk warehouse under construction in South Dallas, an area teeming with industrial plans due to stepped-up efforts to establish an inland port for road and rail transport. Under the inland port premise, industrial space won't need to neighbor it to draw from its momentum.

The industrial development has been on TCC's drawing board nearly 18 months. TCC vice president Jake Marks, who's leasing the Triple Freeport-exempt space, pulled together a development deal that will extend Beckley Meade Avenue by one mile in a $2.8-million cost to TCC, according to Krikorian. Marilyn Avinger and Hammond Perot with the Dallas Economic Development Corp. and councilman James L. Fantroy secured a blessing for a 90% tax abatement for 10 years on the project. They and other officials will be on hand for Friday's 2 p.m. groundbreaking.

Local firms Alliance Architects Inc. designed the first phase and Cadence McShane Corp. will build it. Krikorian says the 1.2-million-sf balance has yet to be designed, but the tentative plan calls for two buildings--800,000 sf and 400,000 sf, roughly, on 66.9 acres. "Or, we could do it all in one," he says. In keeping with development practice, the second phase will get underway when the first one's leased.