Equity Industrial Partners Corp. was one of five investment groups in recent months to place an offer on the 139-acre property at 2200 S. Business 45 in Corsicana, 84 miles south of Fort Worth. A group of Kmart shareholders pulled the asset from bankruptcy in July 2003, hiring J. Holmes Davis IV, senior vice president in Dallas for the Philadelphia-based Binswanger/CBB to market it. Davis tells GlobeSt.com that the sellers fully expected it would take at least a year to find a buyer. The seller of record, RMG, is affiliated with the McLean, VA-headquartered Reilly Mortgage Group.

Davis says eight would-be buyers surfaced during the eight months that the asset was on the market, representing all sizes and types of prospects. Equity Residential paid just $4.5 million less than the asking price. The City of Corsicana sweetened the deal with a 75% break for seven years on any improvements to the property, assessed at $7 million, and a 30% abatement on inventory for a decade, Daryl Schliem, CEO of the city's economic development corporation.

The Atlanta-based Home Depot, promising to bring 250 jobs, is planning to jump into upgrades of the 92-dock, rail-served building with an eye on occupancy in May or June, according to Davis. The firm is stripping out all racking equipment and updating the office area in a retooling for the addition of a distribution center for imported goods coming in from the Port of Houston. The property is off Interstate 45--key to the sale, Davis says.