Matrix To Make Bottles With 150,000-SF Lease

HAZELWOOD, MO-Plastics container manufacturer Matrix Packaging Co. has signed a lease for 150,000 sf of space at the 528,000-sf Lindbergh Distribution Center here. The Mississauga, Ontario, Canada-based company recently earned a contract to make plastic bottles for Proctor and Gamble.

Jon Hinds, VP of industrial leasing for building owner and developer Duke Realty Corp., says Matrix signed a five-year lease. Matrix will hire 75 employees to work at the space.

Duke completed the speculative building in November. "We have some other people looking at it, but nothing is finalized yet," Hinds says. The building was constructed on the 26-acre former site of a General Motors Corp. parts distribution warehouse that has been torn down. The asking lease rate for the building, at Lindbergh Boulevard and James S. McDonnell Boulevard is $4.15 per sf, triple net, Hinds says. The building features 32-foot ceiling heights, docks on both sides of the building and lots of trailer parking, he says.

Hinds says his company built the facility because of the proximity to Interstates 70, 270 and 370, as well as a 50% tax abatement on the property. "This submarket in the north area has been traditionally a solid industrial market, the majority of the St. Louis bulk warehouse and distribution is in this market," Hinds tells GlobeSt.com. Duke owns, manages or is developing more than seven million sf of office, industrial and retail in the greater St. Louis area.