(Crystal Proenza is associate editor of Real Estate Florida.)

TAMPA, FL-Within the next two weeks locally-based CLW Industrial Group and Cobalt Industrial REIT II, managed by Dallas-based Cobalt Capital Partners, have plans to break ground on a 175,000-sf speculative industrial park that will cater to small bay users requiring space between 5,000 and 20,000 sf. Located on 13.7 acres of land at the intersection of Fowler Avenue and US 301, the center will fill the needs of an underserved tenant type in the Tampa market, developers say. The value of the project is greater than $10 million, says Dirk Mosis, managing director with Cobalt.

Ross Kirk, principal of CLW and veteran Tampa Bay developer, says tenants with warehouse needs smaller than 40,000 sf have been shut out of Tampa market in recent years. "The new product being brought online last year wasn't designed to be divided as small as these tenants might require," he says. "We've decided to target those tenants with a mix of product types with different make ups—bay widths, clearing heights and building depths—so we can accommodate a tenant from 4,000 up to 72,000 sf."

Rental rates at the new center are projected to range from $6.75 per sf with a $6 per sf tenant improvement allowance for dock high space and 24-foot clearing heights to $8.95 per sf with an allowance of $14 per sf for grade level product with 16-foot clear heights, says Kirk. Jeffrey Bardin of CLW will handle leasing for the project. The Tampa office of Itasca Construction Associates is the general contractor, with architect Lutz-based Rick Z. Smith & Associates and engineer Larry Mills & Associates.