Construction of the three greenfield warehouse sites will create a total of 600 jobs. Construction is expected to be completed by mid-2015 for Steele and Tamarack, and by the end of 2015 for Des Moines.

“These three industrial parks we are developing in the Seattle area demonstrate our commitment to continuing to diversify our real estate equity holdings through the addition of high quality industrial assets,” says Robert Merck, senior managing director and global head of real estate for MetLife. “We have an experienced partner in Panattoni and our national collaboration in the industrial park segment is off to a great start, first in Atlanta and now in Seattle.”

In July, the two companies announced they would team up to develop an initial portfolio of eight state-of-the-art industrial facilities in four states totaling nearly 6 million square feet on 356 acres, as GlobeSt.com previously reported. The first is the Lambert Farms Distribution Center near Atlanta, a 3 million square foot distribution space that may accommodate up to two 1.5 million square foot facilities. In addition to the Atlanta and Seattle projects, the companies plan to build facilities in Chicago, the Inland Empire market of California, and another project in the Northeast Atlanta sub-market.

According to a recent Q3 Seattle industrial report from Kidder Matthews, the region's industrial market continues to be very active on all fronts—leasing, sales and development. While aerospace employment continues to show some leakage, gains in other durable and nondurable goods has helped offset those losses, the firm says.

“Coupled with growth in the transportation and utility sectors, demand through the first nine months has exceeded new deliveries,” the Kidder Matthews report says. “One caveat is the recent announcement by Boeing that it is moving a large part of their defense engineering work out of Kent and Seattle to Oklahoma and Missouri. About 2,000 jobs will be lost over the next three years. While disappointing, Boeing indicates this will have little impact on the two major Boeing defense programs based in the region, both built here using the 767-based Air Force tanker and the 737-based P-8 anti-submarine jet.”

While marijuana growers are entering the market looking for industrial space to rent, which is increasing the potential tenant prospects in the region, the firm says, they continue to experience some obstacles as many landlords, city planners, and lenders still view them as a higher risk due to federal laws which still prohibit such use.

“Another ongoing trend is the change in land uses, particularly in Bellevue where pockets of traditional-zoned areas have been up-zoned, resulting in the displacement of tenants. Another example is in Redmond where the city is considering up-zoning the Marymoor area to allow multifamily uses and restrict the traditional industrial uses that have occupied this area.”