DS Waters Inks 103,000-SF Industrial Lease

PORTLAND, OR-DS Waters has signed a 10-year lease for a 103,000-sf industrial building here that sits within Columbia Pacific, a 15-building park on Northeast Airport Way between 122nd and 138th avenues. The Atlanta-based producer and distributor of bottled water products will use the space to consolidate three existing locations in the region, one in Clackamas and two in Portland.The building, which includes about 15,000 sf of office space, was built to suit a manufacturer about seven years ago and is the only manufacturing building in the park. It has been vacant for about two years. CB Richard Ellis brokers Brent Woodruff (Atlanta) and Don Riggens (Portland) represented DS Waters. Steven Klein and Tom Talbot of GVA Kidder Mathews had the leasing assignment for park owner Quest Investments. “We found somebody that could utilize a lot of the existing infrastructure,” says Klein, explaining that the building was extra power, thick floor slabs, extra ventilation and lighting, and plumbing throughout. “If somebody wanted it only for distribution, it wouldn’t have had as much appeal.”DS Waters employs approximately 5,500 people in more than 30 states and operates 25 manufacturing facilities around the nation. It produces bottled water products under several different brand names, including Alhambra, Belmont Springs, Crystal Springs, Hinckley Springs, Kentwood Springs, Sierra Springs and Sparkletts. Quest Investments senior asset manager Kevin Johnson tells GlobeSt.com that the lease drops vacancy in the park to about 5% or about 33,000 sf of the park’s 768,000 sf of rentable area. He declined to get specific with regard to the negotiated lease rate on the DS Waters transaction, but the triple-net asking rate for the building was $0.34 per sf.The particular building DS Waters will be occupying it at 13233 NE Jarrett St., which is accessed off Northeast 138th Avenue. Klein says the company will occupy the space in a couple of months, when tenant improvements are complete.Johnson says the park has seen a lot of activity in the past six months, with NNR Global Logistics, MPC International (Miller Paint), MacDonald-Miller and Cingular Wireless all leasing space. Prior to all the activity, Johnson says the park was just under 80% leased.