Sunbelt has just started to move into the 1970s-era warehouse at 2550 Downing St., according to Craig Hughes, director of Dallas based Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc. He told Globest.com that Sunbelt opted to "test" the location with a short term lease because it's just a shade under the 15 mile count off of higher dryage cost. Sunbelt will be transporting containers of 2,000-pound cotton bales to the Union Pacific railroad inter-modal facility in Alliance, T, which is 14.9 miles haul from the warehouse.

Hughes says Sunbelt plans to keep some warehouses in West Texas and close a couple smaller ones since it has found a Fort Worth distribution spot. The deal maker was that "it's a low cost efficient building," he says, adding the 20-plus dock doors won high points with the tenant.

According to Hughes, Sunbelt is one of the few cotton distributors that always ships full containers on both import and export routes. Sunbelt operates a 450,000-sf distribution center in Houston and has another large facility in Memphis. Hughes estimates that Fresno, CA-based Sunbelt has nearly four million sf of distribution centers in the US.