SHAFTER, CA—Roll Real Estate Development has completed a 1-million-square-foot industrial build-to-suit project for American Tire Distributors at its Paramount Logistics Park, a 1,625-acre industrial campus in Shafter, CA. The project broke ground eight months ago after American Tire solicited the custom big-box building and signed a 20-year lease at the property. American Tire will take occupancy in the building this month. 

“American Tire recognizes the central point of this project to the central US. It has duel port access and rail access, and they are utilizing both of those,” Mike McCrary managing director of industrial services at JLL, tells GlobeSt.com. “Ultimately, they realized they had the ability to reach millions of people in a day's time. Our project offered a centralized location with very centralized transportation and logistics and it offered great access to labor.” McCrary handles leasing for the Paramount Logistics Park, along with his JLL colleagues Peter McWilliams, Mac Hewett and Nicole Welch.

The leasing team has received strong interest at the property from potential tenants, and although the property does have speculative developments, the team is receiving an increasing number of build-to-suit requests. “We have been getting very strong interest from large-scale corporate America clients looking for Western regional distribution or fulfillment centers. We are seeing more and more build-to-suit buildings in the 1-million-square-foot size range,” says McCrary. “Companies have more and greater demands of what goes on in the building than ever before, so they are very much looking to have things customized.”

The industrial park can build up to 26 million square feet of industrial space, a project that could take 15 years to complete, according to McCrary. “We are really at the leading edge of a 15-year cycle with this project,” he says, adding that the property will house buildings as small as 300,000 square feet all the way to the 1-million-plus-square-foot range. “The goal of the project will be to provide the big-box buildings,” McCrary explains.

Shafter is part of the booming greater Southern California industrial market, although McCray says that it is not a competitor with the Inland Empire market. “Shafter is an alternative Western regional market; but it has a corporate America tenant mix, and ultimately, their corporate strategies are similar,” he says. “The reality is that the availability of land is tightening in that area, and we could be a great alternative.”