FedEx Signs First BTS Deal for 115-Acre Park

HOUSTON-A local developer has snagged its first build-to-suit tenant for the 115-acre Satsuma Station Industrial Park. FedEx Freight East Inc., a subsidiary of FedEx Inc., has signed a lease with a minimum 10-year term for a 153,853-sf cross-dock freight facility in northwest Houston.

PinPoint Commercial can't divulge the project cost or what FedEx is paying for its lease, but area experts say the all-in costs for comparable cross-dock facilities range from $110 per sf to $140 per sf. The FedEx Freight facility will be built on a 45-acre tract at the junction of US Hwy. 290 and FM 1960. Dirt has already begun to move, with vertical development penciled to begin in September. The project is slated for completion in second quarter Q2 2008.

PinPoint Commercial's CFO Charles Turner says the deal was about two years in the making, but the wait was worth it because the FedEx lease has put the rail-served Satsuma Station on the map. Other potential build-to-suit tenants are looking at the park's remaining 70 acres. "There are at least three other interested users we're talking to very seriously, that are looking at buildings ranging from 40,000 sf to several hundred thousand sf," Turner tells GlobeSt.com. He estimates the deals could come to fruition within the next six months.

Turner says Satsuma Station most likely attracted FedEx's interest because of its location. "It's in the heavy industrial northwest side by a lot of major access points," he says. "There isn't a whole lot of land that size, that close in to town."

FedEx's internal staff is working with Schwob Building Co. Ltd. of Dallas on construction and design. Jeremy Newsom with Amegy Bank of Texas is handling construction financing. Dave Dandurand, principal and vice president with Burr & Temkin Commercial in Overland Park, and Clay Peeples, director with Boyd Commercial LLC in Houston, represented FedEx.