New JV Trying Out Spec Space in Vintage Industrial Park

FORT WORTH-A developer, equity investment group and landowner have banded together to add the first multi-tenant, spec product in two decades to the 950-acre Carter Industrial Park, a haven for big-box corporate users on the south side of Fort Worth.

The lineup has Bradford Cos. as the developer, Realty Capital Partners Inc. drumming up equity investors and Carter Foundation Production Co., led by American Oil & Gas Co., kicking in the acreage. The first JV project, 120,000 sf in two buildings, will break ground in January 2005 and deliver in midsummer, Kevin Santaularia, Bradford’s president, tells GlobeSt.com. The trio intends to develop buildings in the $5-million to $10-million range for users needing 10,000 sf to 50,000 sf, he says.

Carter Industrial Park, established in 1968 at the junction of Interstates 35W and 20, is a mix of predominately owner/user boxes ranging from 24,000 sf for American Animal Health to 1.1 million sf for Miller Brewing Co. of Milwaukee, one of the park’s pioneers. As the small-user industrial play takes root, the park owner’s land sales team, Mereken Land & Production Co., is hawking seven sites for 496,000 sf of retail development to accessorize a development with facilities for 32 corporations and 8,000 workers streaming in and out each day. The dirt is priced at $12 per sf for a hard corner and $9 per sf negotiable for surrounding land.