DFW Brings on Another Mega Facility

GRAND PRAIRIE, TX—Construction is underway on Oakdale Logistics Center, a 401,577-square-foot warehouse and distribution building, following the 2017 acquisition of the underlying 24-acre parcel by Newport Beach, CA-based CT and its affiliate Dallas-based Port Logistics Realty. The project is in the Great Southwest industrial submarket, one of the largest in the DFW metroplex, with strong demand fundamentals as measured by a 5% vacancy rate in the bulk distribution segment.

“CT and PLR were attracted to the project due to the strong market fundamentals in Grand Prairie and the Great Southwest submarket, which at 107 million square feet is the largest concentration of industrial space in the DFW metroplex,” James “Watty” Watson, managing partner with CT, tells GlobeSt.com. “Much of this stock was delivered in the 1970s and 1980s, however, and is insufficient for the needs of today’s companies.”

Oakdale Logistics Center is located at 949 West Oakdale Rd., at the intersection of West Oakdale Road and the 161 Turnpike. The property is served by Interstate 30, the primary east-west route through the metroplex. Air cargo facilities are also nearby, with DFW International Airport and Love Field within a 10-minute drive.

The cross-dock distribution facility will have a 32-foot clear height, 520 feet of building depth and ample loading capacity that includes 75 dock-high doors and four grade-level doors, accessible via 185 foot-deep truck courts.

“We are excited to have found such an ideal site for the development of this class-A distribution facility in the absolute heart of metroplex, where land availability has become so scarce,” said Rob Huthnance, president of Port Logistics Realty. “The Great Southwest submarket has long been in high demand and experienced net absorption of 4 million square feet in 2017.”

The project marks the third DFW development between CT and Port Logistics Realty. The companies completed an industrial building in Grand Prairie in 2017 and are in development with venture partner Diamond Realty Investments, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation, on the 9 million-square-foot Southport Logistics Park in Wilmer, TX, just south of Dallas.

Demand for last-mile distribution facilities throughout DFW are evident both in the southeast area including Wilmer and the Southwest submarket, GlobeSt.com learns. LaSalle and Stream Realty are also in development of 271,000 square feet on Parkway Logistics Center in Grand Prairie, approximately six miles to the south of the CT and Port Logistics building completed last year.

“We see increasing demand drivers for modern distribution space, and the opportunity to deliver this in a land-constrained market and on a site with great location attributes is highly appealing,” Huthnance tells GlobeSt.com. “Grand Prairie has an established and sizable user base for industrial space and we think tenant demand for this building will be very strong.”

The Dallas industrial market is being spurred by nationwide demand that has brought on a new wave of tier 1 markets that extend beyond proximity to deep water ports. CT and Port Logistics Realty are capitalizing on this with multiple class-A large spec projects underway, GlobeSt.com learns.

“The primary focus of CT’s growth strategy is to develop, own and manage a portfolio of logistics projects in high demand tier 1 markets nationwide,” said Watson.

CT most recently announced the development of 1.34 million square feet of large-scale distribution buildings at Interchange 55 Logistics Park in the greater Chicago area, and is also in development on major logistics centers in Northern and Southern California, Arizona, Atlanta, New Jersey and Illinois. The company’s current land holdings support the development of as much as 15 million square feet of industrial buildings during the next five to seven years.