CINCINNATI—Dermody Properties and Hillwood Investment Properties recently broke ground on an 898,560 square foot facility for Wayfair Inc., an online distributor of home furnishings and décor. The groundbreaking took place at 1600 Donaldson Rd. in suburban Erlanger, KY, next to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport and in one of the tightest major distribution areas in the country.
Wayfair already has a fulfillment center in nearby Hebron, KY, where it currently employs more than 200. The central location of Cincinnati and its suburbs on the other side of the Ohio River has made the locale quite important as online businesses expand throughout the US. However, it has been more difficult to get large distribution projects started on the KY side due to the difficult terrain, one of the reasons vacancy rates have sunk to historic lows.
In the second quarter, for example, CBRE reported vacancy rates of 4.4% in Cincinnati and 2% in northern KY. And the rate among class A bulk warehouses in the KY submarket had fallen to just 0.5%.
“Northern Kentucky is an optimal location for our new operations facility, which will allow us to increase our distribution capacity to support the rapid growth of our business,” says Nicholas Malone, chief administrative officer, Wayfair.
The facility, called LogistiCenter at 275, will have 36' clear heights and will be the largest single development in the history of Dermody. It is its third development in the KY market. Paul Hemmer Co., the general contractor, expects to complete construction in the second quarter of 2016.
Officials from Wayfair, Dermody, and Hillwood celebrated the groundbreaking on October 13, but construction is already underway. Site utilities are nearly complete, floor slabs are 25% complete and the construction team has started on the exterior walls.
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
