(To read more on the industrial market, click here.)

ELKRIDGE, MD-Liberty Property Trust has signed the first tenant for its new flex-use development in Elkridge. The project, called Highpoint 100, will total 225,600 sf, and consists of two single-story flex buildings: a 99,600 sf building at 7351 Coca Cola Dr. and a 126,000-sf building at 7361 Coca Cola Dr. The project will cost approximately $92 per foot including transactions costs.

Liberty plans to break ground on the first building midsummer and deliver it in spring 2007. The tenant, Dynamic Designs Enterprises and SWC Inc., will occupy 50,000 sf, using the space as headquarters for the design and manufacturing of men's golf apparel and ladies tennis wear. Construction on the second building will begin contingent upon a prelease and has an expected schedule of eight months. Rental rates average $6.75 per sf from cold dark shell, triple net, according to Lisa Sullivan, vice president of leasing and development.Sullivan tells GlobeSt.com that Liberty is targeting flex-use tenants that are 20% to 50% office users and would like a higher-level finish on the exterior of the building. "We are going after a market that we don't think has been adequately captured by existing product," Sullivan says. Essentially, these are tenants that still require the warehouse functionality of flex use but would like a more corporate or quality image for its office space. Liberty is currently scouting additional land sites in Maryland to replicate this concept, looking at parcels in Hartford and Frederick counties, she says.

Liberty also has plans to expand another development--a class A office facility-- called Liberty Place in Columbia on Old Dobin Lane, Sullivan says. It is a five-building complex consisting of four one-story and one two-story buildings totaling 188,515 sf that is 98.7% leased. "We anticipate breaking ground on a new, two-story, 64,500-sf building in August," Sullivan says.