Cross & Co. acquired the land at the junction of Tradesman Drive near Interstate 10 and Loop 1604 from a private partnership, Tradesman LLC of St. Louis. The new owner will begin infrastructure work within four months plus plat the dirt for the pad sites, which are earmarked for office buildings in the 10,000-sf to 12,000-sf range. Pad sites will be sold for $5 per sf.

Cross plans to develop 12 to 15 warehouses and call center-type buildings, each 45,000 sf on the remainder of the land. Development costs are being fine-tuned, but comparable space has cost $60 per sf to build.

"We want to sell our first lots sell within the next six months. We'll begin our first spec buildings within the next year," says Ryan Smith, vice president with Cross & Co. He tells GlobeSt.com that there are contracts already in hand for some lots, which will be sold following plan approvals. "We're not going to run out of land any time soon for users, but it demonstrates how much pent-up demand for this type of product there is in the I-10 corridor," he says.