IDI, with another 60 acres under option, is looking at a build-out value of $70 million to $100 million for the projected 4.4 million sf of class A industrial space, which will be planted near the junction of Texas 114 and Rural Route 156. IDI has placed the project into its bank of long-term holds rather than its merchant-build program, according to Doug Johnson, vice president and regional development officer for IDI's Dallas office.

In a previous market analysis, Grubb & Ellis Co.'s research team found that Dallas/Fort Worth is leading the nation in spec industrial development. "I'm going to a market that's a proven submarket," Johnson tells GlobeSt.com, "and with the characteristics that I like to see when IDI buys a piece of land." His primary competition is Hillwood in the North Fort Worth-Denton County corridor versus the half dozen or so developers who are building in South Dallas, where much of the 16.5 million sf of spec is under way or poised to break ground. North Fort Worth's 61-million-sf inventory had a 6.9% vacancy at the first quarter's close, according to CB Richard Ellis' latest report.

Johnson says the submarket's fundamentals underwrote the decision to buy the acreage and now support the park's spec start. "That's a great submarket. Interstate 35 and the BNSF intermodal are huge drivers," he adds. "A warehouse needs to be situated near a highway that goes somewhere, an intermodal and population growth." He says all dynamics are at work in the corridor, with IDI's land sporting a railroad track along its Texas 114 line and a location 1.5 miles from the BNSF Railroad's intermodal in Alliance.