Two New Major Industrial Projects Start Up in Texas

This week, two developers have announced major industrial projects in the Texas market. Black Creek Group has acquired 165 acres in Dallas to build the two-building, 2 million-square-foot I-20 Logistics Park, which will be the largest project in the firm’s history. Simultaneously, Rastegar Industrial announced that it plans to develop a 530,000-square-foot near Tesla’s Gigafactory in Austin.

The I-20 Logistics Park has been in the works for two years with Archway Properties, Black Creek’s co-developer, assembling more than 40 land parcels split among 18 properties to create the desirable site. Now, the property is one of the largest development sites along the I-20 Corridor, the area for which the property takes its name.

The park will be built in two phases. Phase one will launch in the third quarter of 2021 with development of a 1 million-square foot industrial facility. Construction will take one year with delivery estimated in the third quarter of 2022. The second phase will undertake the second 1 million-square-foot property, but there is no ground breaking date planned. Black Creek says that the site can accommodate build-to-suits or a future speculative project. Both building will have the flexibility to be occupied by single or multiple tenants. While construction has yet to begin, both properties are being actively marketed for lease by Ryan Thornton and Nathan Lawrence of CBRE.

Rastegar Industrial’s project is located on 50 acres in Austin in an opportunity zone. According to the developer, industrial demand in the area has skyrocketed recently, and this project will capitalize on that demand. Rastegar expects to have a tenant in place during construction to collaborate on the design, and it has already begun marketing efforts with Newmark.

The property is located near Tesla’s Gigafactory and the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. As a result, the property is an ideal hub for an e-commerce or logistics operator, and they would be in good company. Retailer Chanel is building a property a few miles away.

Industrial development began to increase at the end of 2020 with several developers moving forward on significant new projects. Duke Realty, for example, broke ground on a 1.2 million square foot logistics facility in Southern California in December. With the new project, the firm has 3.1 million square feet of industrial product under construction in Southern California alone.