The industrial market in South Texas is breaking records. In a milestone transaction, international trade and logistics services company The JAMCO Group has signed a 500,000-square-foot, long-term lease to occupy a former Mattel facility in Laredo, Texas, owned by industrial power player Majestic Realty Co. The deal is the largest lease transaction in the market in two decades, since 1999.

The new lease transaction triples JAMCO's current footprint. The firm views Laredo as a key logistics market in the US, and they aren't alone. Laredo is severely supply constrained with limited options for quality space in any size range. As a result, there was strong completion for this property from users across the country. "There is a complete supply constrain for any new, modern bulk space. Anything that does come online usually gets gobbled up pretty quickly," Kyle Valley, SVP at Majestic Realty, tells GlobeSt.com. "We had Fortune 500 companies looking at the space, but this group came through with a great plan."

Laredo is an interesting logistics market. It rarely receives significant attention among investors or developers; however, the city is home to the nation's largest inland port. "Most people across the country don't understand the logistical importance of Laredo to the global logistics community and especially to North American trade," says Valley. "It is the largest inland port in the country, and it is the first customs district port in the country. Laredo gets lost in the shuffle because people don't realize how much trade actually goes through here."