(To read more on the industrial market, click here.)
SUFFOLK, VA-Sometime this month ground will break for phase one of Virginia Regional Commerce Park, a $100-million, 1.2-million-sf warehouse, manufacturing and distribution project located at the intersection of Route 460 and Route 58 here. The project is a joint venture between the Regional Cos., a development and construction company based in Charlotte, NC, and local businessman Augustus Miller.
The first phase will include a 400,000-sf multi-tenant warehouse, manufacturing and distribution facility that will be divisible to 60,000 sf units and situated on 25 acres. The building will have a 32' clear ceiling height, column spacing of 50' by 50', 68 dock doors with levelers, on-site trailer storage and parking. Estimated costs for phase one are roughly $50 per sf.
The total size of the park is approximately 110 acres and will consist of three other multi-use buildings, similar to the first. Once completely developed, there will be one million sf of space available to lease for a range of uses including office/warehouse, light industrial, logistics, fulfillment, manufacturing and packaging.
"The park will also be set up to permit higher end users for high tech light assembly--companies that would need corporate office facilities related to warehousing or distribution activities," Michael Shaheen, president of the Regional Cos., tells GlobeSt.com
Construction of Phase I, or Building A as it will be called, should be completed by September 2007 when the first tenants are expected to move in. Phase II of the four-building project will begin once phase one is leased.
Worth Remick, Ashton Williamson, Lang Williams and Blake Dozier of CB Richard Ellis' Industrial Services team in Norfolk have been retained to handle leasing. Remick tells GlobeSt.com that they have just begun marketing the facility.
Because the project is being designed with a number of distribution/warehouse-related activities in mind, the company is taking a shotgun approach to marketing, he says. "Demand for industrial space here is expected to grow dramatically over the next few years when the new AP Moeller [Maersk] terminal opens in June of this year," he says. The $490-million terminal will double capacity at the Port of Virginia, capacity that will in turn generate new demand for warehouse space.
To be sure, there are a number of competing projects under way also vying for a piece of the expected new business including a 330,000-sf industrial project nearing completion in Isle of Wight County by Johnson Development.
However Remick says demand for industrial/warehouse space here is already tight even without the new terminal. "Right now, we have a 4.5% vacancy rate. That means if someone wanted to lease 100,000 sf to 400,000 sf they would find there is little to no existing product available."
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Erika Morphy
Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.
