"We're building smaller product for smaller service-type businesses," James Maibach, president of Peyco Southwest Realty Inc., tells GlobeSt.com. "There's not much competition out there." The strategy targets users who most likely have customers in the immediate region's larger distribution structures, such as those at Hillwood's 15,000-acre AllianceTexas.

Key to Blue Mound's ability to turn out industrial product in quick fashion is the fact that it's not in any city limits and therefore not subject to lengthy and often times trying municipal processes, Maibach says. Blue Mound Center North's first phase will deliver in five months.

The building phases for the Blue Mound projects are being developed on roughly 10-acre tracts and built out with multiple structures. The parks are designed with concrete roads that are wide enough for tractor-trailers, a feature not commonly found at smaller industrial parks, says Maibach.

The success formula for design and location showed its muscle in a five-month lease-up for a five-building, 42,000-sf first phase of Blue Mound 287 Business Center. Initial projections called for lease-up to take at least six months and most likely nine months. A second phase of 61,000 sf in seven buildings is 15% pre-leased as it edges into its second construction month. Meanwhile, the developer has hawked 12 acres to a private investor and another 30 to the North Texas Insurance Auction. And that activity spurred the decision to buy more land in the Blue Mound East and US Highway 287 corridor. RDS Investments of Ft. Worth is the quarterback and lead local investor for the group backing the projects.

Blue Mound Center North broke ground yesterday, officially firing the starting gun for Maibach's brokers to court users in the 8,000-sf to 16,000-sf category, slightly larger than those taking space at the sister development. Another 10-acre project will break ground as soon as the first phase is leased, says Maibach. Bob Grumbling of Ft. Worth is the architect and Ragon-Barnes of Burleson, a Ft. Worth suburb, is the general contract.