Browning Scores 900 KSF Tenant in Kentucky

Velocity 65 Building 2. Image courtesy of Browning Investments

Landlord Browning Investments has signed a 908,600-square-foot lease for the entire Building 2 at Velocity 65 Trade Center in Shepherdsville, Ky. Senior Directors Phil Charmoli and Greg Charmoli of Cushman & Wakefield Commercial Kentucky arranged the long-term lease on behalf of the landlord.

The largest facility in the industrial park, Building 2 was completed earlier this year as a speculative project. The owner declined to discuss additional details regarding the leasing agreement.

Located at 200 Velocity Way, the facility sits on a 49-acre plot and offers cross-docking, 90 loading docks, four grade-level doors and 36-foot clear heights. Amenities include fire suppression systems, two electric drive-in doors and some 370 parking spaces.

The business park is part of an industrial area immediately east of Interstate 65, which has been a long time home to Amazon and eBay fulfillment centers, among others. The park is 18 miles south of the UPS Worldport global air-freight hub at the Louisville International Airport and 27 miles southeast of the Port of Louisville.

In 2018, Browning signed a 721,050-square-foot lease with Walmart for the park’s Building 1. Buildings 3 and 5 are scheduled to break ground in the spring of 2022. Plans for the two projects call for a total of 822,000 square feet of speculative space. Once finalized, the industrial center will offer more than 4 million square feet across five distribution facilities.

Louisville’s thriving industrial market

The vacancy rate in Bullitt County, where Velocity 65 is located, went from 11.3 percent to less than 1.0 percent in just one month, with 3.6 million square feet in leases, said Phil Charmoli in prepared remarks.

Even with an industrial inventory of more than 175 million square feet, Louisville vacancy dipped to 3.5 percent going into the fourth quarter, according to a recent Cushman & Wakefield report. Meanwhile, asking rents were up 9.1 percent year-over-year, clocking in at $4.52 per square foot.

Reflecting the ongoing confidence in the local market, JLL Income Property Trust paid $96 million for a 1 million-square-foot facility in Bullitt County earlier this year. The warehouse is leased to McKesson Corp., a medical pharmaceuticals and technology distributor. What’s more, Amazon announced in March plans to expand its delivery capacity in Kentucky with the opening of two last-mile facilities, in Shepherdsville and Louisville.