Cross & Co. acquired the land at the junction of TradesmanDrive near Interstate 10 and Loop 1604 from a private partnership,Tradesman LLC of St. Louis. The new owner will begin infrastructurework within four months plus plat the dirt for the pad sites, whichare earmarked for office buildings in the 10,000-sf to 12,000-sfrange. Pad sites will be sold for $5 per sf.

Cross plans to develop 12 to 15 warehouses and call center-typebuildings, each 45,000 sf on the remainder of the land. Developmentcosts are being fine-tuned, but comparable space has cost $60 persf to build.

"We want to sell our first lots sell within the next six months.We'll begin our first spec buildings within the next year," saysRyan Smith, vice president with Cross & Co. He tellsGlobeSt.com that there are contracts already in hand for some lots,which will be sold following plan approvals. "We're not going torun out of land any time soon for users, but it demonstrates howmuch pent-up demand for this type of product there is in the I-10corridor," he says.