Devon will move into the facility in second quarter 2004 under a 15-year lease, Brent Wood, senior vice president of the local office of Jackson, MS-based EastGroup Properties, tells GlobeSt.com. He says Devon has been mulling over a build-to-suit project to store records and data for several years, initiating talks with EastGroup about nine months ago. According to David H. Hoster II, EastGroup's president and CEO, the project will be funded with a bank line of credit.

Wood and Mike Annino with Insite Realty Group in the city represented EastGroup in the negotiations for the 4.2-acre project. The REIT has another 46 acres land-banked for future industrial development in the park, located between Beltway 8 and the airport in the city's far north submarket.

"When completed, this building (World Houston 17) will increase our ownership in World Houston to over 1.3 million sf and our Houston portfolio to over 2.9 million sf," Hoster says in a press release. He adds EastGroup will continue to eye development and acquisition opportunities in the city, but construction is most often tied to market conditions. In January, EastGroup delivered two speculative buildings: a 66,450-sf multi-tenant warehouse is 31% occupied and a 61,750-sf structure, designed for one or two tenants, which is empty.