Trammell, MetLife Plan 4.7M SF Savannah Industrial Campus

Trammell Crow has partnered with MetLife Investment Management to purchase a 477-acre site in Effingham County near Savannah for the construction of a 4.7M SF industrial campus, bringing much-needed new Class A space to the tightest industrial market in the US.

A transaction price was not disclosed. The seller, Greenland Developers, was represented by JLL, according to a release on Trammell’s website.

The partners are planning a six-building campus to be known as Coastal Trade Center that will be built in two phases at a site in Rincon, GA along State Highway 21 about 14 miles from the Port of Savannah. The industrial campus will be located on a to-built street that will be called Coastal Trade Center Parkway.

Ground will be broken in March for Phase I, which will include three cross-dock buildings that will encompass 1.2M SF, 641K SF and 474K, respectively. The first phase is scheduled for delivery in Q4 2024.

Phase II of the Coastal Trade Center project will include two cross-dock buildings of 1.4M SF and 612K SF, respectively, and a 363K SF front-load building.

In a statement announcing the site acquisition, Will Lombard, a Trammell senior VP based in Atlanta, said the campus will provide its future tenants with scalability and port accessibility in a market with a vacancy rate of under one percent.

“The Coastal Trade Center is uniquely positioned to provide outstanding port proximity, scalability, and speed-to-completion in a market that has a very tight vacancy rate under one percent and is in need of new Class A product,” Lombard said.

Leasing services for the campus will be provided by JLL, which is involved in several major industrial projects in the Savannah area.

JLL Capital Markets helped secure $63M in construction financing for the 85-acre Logistics 16 campus, which will encompass 1M SF in Bloomington GA in a development by McCraney Property Co.

Savannah only needed three quarters in 2022 to break the record for annual net absorption set in 2021, notching 11.3M as of the end of Q3, compared to 10.5M for all of the previous year, according to JLL’s Q3 2022 market report.

As of the end of the third quarter, Savannah’s industrial vacancy rate was 0.5%, the lowest in the US for the second consecutive quarter.

Average rental rates reached and surpassed the $6.00 mark, up 25.3% year-over-year at the end of Q3, a historical high for the market, JLL reported. Savannah’s inventory reached an all-time high, steadily increasing over the past four years.

There is about 22M SF under construction in Savannah, with keeping pace, with 47% of new construction preleased or in negotiations.