CINCINNATI—Molto Properties has just acquired 19.22 acres located in the Airpark International Business Park in Boone County, KY, just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. The company plans to develop in several phases two state-of-the-art, class A, industrial distribution buildings totaling over 300,000 square feet.
The KY portion of this metro area is cut by a lot of sharp hills, making it difficult to find and secure land suitable for distribution buildings, but the international airport nearby, along with a central US location, has given users ample reasons to lease almost all available space.
“Cincinnati has had very good net absorption the last several years,” Mike Powers, chief investment officer and senior principal of Molto, tells GlobeSt.com. The 284 million square foot market saw about five million square feet absorbed in 2016, and in 2017, another six million square feet. “That's a record high, and the vacancy rate is hovering near an all-time low.”
And its future as a distribution hub seems even brighter. Amazon has decided to create a $1.4 billion hub at the Cincinnati/Northern KY airport, part of a larger move to lessen its dependence on UPS and FedEx.
Oakbrook Terrace, IL-based Molto will partner with the Paul Hemmer Co. to construct the two buildings. It plans to complete the first of 142,021 square feet by the third quarter this year, and the second of 160,984 square feet by the third quarter of next year. “A lot of the development that has taken place down there has consisted of larger buildings,” says Powers, and many users looking for between 50,000 and 70,000 square feet will appreciate this project.
This partnership with a local firm like Paul Hemmer was key to completing the deal. “There are some very reluctant landowners in the area,” says Powers. That's not an unusual problem for land-hungry developers, but “for some reason it's more of an issue with this area.” And Hemmer has long-standing relationships with many people in the region that can smooth out any problems that do occur.
Molto has retained Jeff Bender and David Kelly of Cushman & Wakefield to market the project.
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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.
