ServiceCraft Sets Up New Shop in 419,758 SF

LANCASTER, TX-With time of the utmost importance, ServiceCraft Logistics Inc. has grabbed the keys to a shell building to hit the ground running on a 419,758-sf lease for a new Kraft North America Commercial contract. The Buena Park, CA-based third-party provider has signed a three-year lease, with an option to expand in ProLogis Park Lancaster 20/35.

Tenant improvements, now about 85% complete, will wrap up in three weeks in a 656,105-sf distribution center, the first spec structure in a 3.3-million-sf park at 2200 Danieldale Dr. near the junction of Interstates 20 and 35 in Dallas County's southern sector. Ken Parker with Atlanta-based NAI Brannen Goddard tells GlobeSt.com that ProLogis' new building was up against one of Trammell Crow Co.'s as a result of a quick market search for immediate space close to ServiceCraft's 377,000-sf distribution operation for CSM Bakery Supplies at 4003 Gifford St. in Duke Realty Corp.'s Grand Lakes park along Interstate 30 in Grand Prairie.

"The delivery issue was the problem with most buildings," Parker says, adding a list of eight was quickly pared to two. He and Jerry Alexander, principal in NAI Huff Partners in Fort Worth, started the ServiceCraft site search in early June.

Alexander says the dealmakers were flexible expansion terms, ProLogis' ability to expedite tenant improvements and incentives from the City of Lancaster. "Once we got it signed, it was a matter of getting it expedited," he says, adding ServiceCraft was under a mandate to be ready to deliver products by July 18 for the Northfield, IL-based Kraft. ProLogis' point man for the deal was Joe Rudd.

The brokers can't confirm the price, but the street says the lease was inked at considerably more than $3 per sf. Parker credits the swift-moving deal and quick set-up to ServiceCraft's early planning. "ServiceCraft did a good job of budgeting on the front end," Parker says. "There wasn't a substantial amount of negotiations on the front end and we didn't have time to court them for the long term. We were behind the eight ball when we started and we had to deliver."

The brokers say ServiceCraft wanted to keep the two Dallas-area distribution operations as close as possible so services and employees could be shared. ServiceCraft leases 173,000 sf from ProLogis in Southern California so that too most likely helped to sway the deal its way.

Earlier this month, the Denver-based ProLogis closed an 81,750-sf lease for its Freeport Corporate Center 6 at 925 Freeport Pkwy. in Coppell. Audio Visual Services Group Inc. of Long Beach, CA signed a seven-year lease for a regional office and Central US distribution centers.

"These transactions reflect the persistent strength we're seeing in the Dallas industrial market, where demand for high-quality, well-located facilities remains healthy, driven in part by companies serving cross-border operations in Mexico," says Steve Meyer, ProLogis' managing director and regional head of capital deployment.