Sprint's long-time call center at 4701 Mercantile Dr.,positioned at the heart of the 1,500-acre park, was up in the airin the aftermath of the merger with Nextel Corp. "This made sensefor them and we tried to make it as rate aggressive as possible sothis would be one they'd retain," Brian L. Randolph with MercantilePartners LP in Fort Worth tells GlobeSt.com. Flex space in the parkruns from $10 per sf to $13 per sf, triple net.

Sprint's broker Marti Nemer with Jones Lang LaSalle did shop themarket, but the area's limited options kept talks going withMercantile Partners. The Kansas City, MO-based Sprint picked uptenant-improvement dollars to upgrade the call center's interior,which is outfitted with a redundancy that helped to keep the tenantin place, according to Randolph.

The building rose as spec space, but Sprint preleased it aboutmidway through construction in 1996. Today, the park contains twomillion sf of fully leased industrial space and 1.5 million sf ofoffice space that's 96% filled. Just this week, Countrywide HomeLoans Inc. of Calabasas, CA got the keys to 24,000 sf, possiblyfiring up a plan for Mercantile to build additional office space.Meanwhile at the end of this month, the developer will deliver a380,000-sf spec industrial project. The expansion calls for a137,500-sf warehouse and two 121,700-sf twins, which will be on themarket for $3.85 per sf, triple net. Also, the crew is gettingready to pour the slab on a 182,000-sf build-to-suit for KaiserPanel Co. to house its headquarters and manufacturing. Randolphsays the 4201 N. Beach St. project will deliver in October.