ORLANDO-The Atlanta-based Oakmont Industrial Group leased 60,058 square feet at its 317,000-square foot Northwest Distribution Center in Apopka in the Orlando metropolitan area. The tenant, Quality Custom Distribution Services, a subsidiary of the Golden State Foods Corp., Inc., will go into the larger of the two buildings at the site, which has 200,000 square feet. The tenant, which is scheduled to move in in August, will take up 30% of the building.

The Quality Custom Distribution Services’ facility will be used for storage and distribution of dry goods as well as refrigerated foods. The building will have 15,000 square feet of cooler/freezer space to serve Chick-fil-A and Starbucks Coffee restaurants. It will be QCD’s 12th distribution center when it opens. In addition to the facility in Apopka, Chick fil-A leases 205,000 square feet at Oakmont’s Atlanta facilities.

Oakmont’s initial phase at the Northwest Distribution Center includes building A, a 117,000-square-foot rear-load building, and building B, a 200,000-square-foot cross-dock building that will house QCD's new facility. Building B has 32-foot-clear-height- ceilings, full concrete truck courts and 20 trailer storage spaces.

Although the two buildings at the Northwest Distribution Center were delivered in the summer of 2008, QCD, which signed a lease for over five years, is the park’s first tenant. But things are looking up in the Orlando area, says Todd Parker, vice president for investments at the Oakmont Industrial Group in Atlanta.

“We have a lot more proposals out for (tenants wanting to rent) space than we did six months ago,” says Parker. “For a while, there was little activity in Florida, as well as California and the Northeast,” where the company also has facilities, he says.

Although Parker declined to give the rental rate for the space at the Northwest Distribution Center, he says that the average industrial rents in the area are in the mid $4.00s.

Parker described the QCD lease as long-term, but he says that long-term depends on the situation. Many industrial tenants have wanted short-term leases in the past 18 months, because they haven’t wanted to commit in uncertain times, says Parker, while landlords don’t want to be locked into lower lease rates for long periods.

The QCD lease was different, says Parker. “In this case, we are putting capital investment into the property, so it merits a long-term lease.” The tenant and landlord are sharing the build-out costs, he says.

In addition to buildings A and B at the Northwest Distribution Center, Oakmont has entitlements to build another 370,000 square feet for a total of 685,000 square feet at builtout.