USAA Real Estate Develops Sustainably-Built Warehouse
The 161,000-SF development in Dallas aims to reduce the carbon impact of its construction by more than 45% through the use of sustainable building materials.
DALLAS, TX – USAA Real Estate, along with its development partner Seefried Industrial Properties, are nearing completion on a 161,000-square-foot industrial development in Dallas Fort Worth, which is one of the first warehouses to be built using sustainable building materials.
Through the use of the sustainable materials, the project aims to reduce the carbon impact of its construction by more than 45%, which equates to a car’s emissions during more than two million miles of travel.
Located within the 157-acre Southfield Park 35 industrial park, the warehouse is situated on 8.7 acres of land near Danieldale and Old Hickory Rd. in south Dallas County, just south of Interstate 20.
Rather than typical concrete tilt-wall panels, the industrial warehouse has been constructed with Cross-Laminated Timber, a precision-designed wood product. By utilizing this wood, rather than steel and concrete, the project’s carbon intensive construction process is mitigated by nearly half. Each CLT panel is constructed to 132nd of an inch within specifications.
The warehouse’s 60-foot CLT panels originate from a forest in British Columbia, Canada that is closely regulated by federal authorities. The authorities only allow 1% of available timber to be cultivated and mandate that two trees be planted for each one that is harvested.
The property’s CLT materials are supplemented with MEGASLAB concrete systems, a proprietary admixture for the building’s slab and site paving that relies on reduced cement while maintaining durability and strength. Conventional construction methods are centered on the use of concrete, which produces 8% of global carbon emissions annually.
“Consistent with our ambition to be more imaginative about limiting the environmental impact of our development projects, we are leveraging renewable resources harvested in a sustainable manner” states Lange Allen, managing director at USAA Real Estate. “In addition to the dramatically reduced carbon footprint of CLT, tenants will recognize the material as aesthetically superior to the standard conventional steel and concrete design of ’tilt up’ walls, as well as the operational benefits of the related energy efficiency that CLT affords.”
“This property has the potential to set a new precedent for sustainable warehouse construction,” states Josh Hullum, construction management director at USAA Real Estate. “Along with the market’s tremendous demand for warehouse product, tenants have an intense and growing appetite for building solutions that have these environmental attributes.”
“Being part of a groundbreaking project focused strictly on using sustainably-harvested timber and eco-friendly materials is monumental in our market with promising room for future growth,” says Jonathan Stites, SVP at Seefried Properties. “We are proud to lead construction of a project utilizing CLT and MEGASLAB systems, which ensures structural integrity, workplace wellbeing and the reduction of greenhouse gasses.”
Colliers International’s Chris Teesdale and Tom Pearson have been retained to market the project.