HSA Commercial Breaks Ground on 1 MSF Industrial Park

June 4, 2020

The initial phase of the project in Bristol, Wis., includes two buildings with an expected completion in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Bristol Highlands Commerce Center. Image courtesy of HSA Commercial Real Estate

In the context of a growing demand for e-commerce space due to the coronavirus pandemic, HSA Commercial Real Estate has broken ground on the initial phase of Bristol Highlands Commerce Center, a 1 million-square-foot speculative industrial development in Bristol, Wis.

The first phase of the project will include a 157,656-square-foot warehouse building with 31 truck docks and a 472,216-square-foot distribution center with 72 truck docks. The site work and mass grading for the business park is already underway and HSA expects the vertical construction to begin in June, with a scheduled delivery of the two buildings in the fourth quarter of this year.

The project team includes Premier Design + Build Group as the general contractors, Partners in Design Architects as the project’s designer, Pinnacle Engineering, which is in charge of civil engineering, and investment advisory firm Washington Capital Management on behalf of one of its clients.

The industrial park also includes a 25-acre parcel that can accommodate a 450,000-square-foot warehouse for a speculative development or a build-to-suit property. In total, Bristol Highlands can be developed to offer more than 1 million square feet of industrial space. Located at the intersection of Wilmot Road and 136th Avenue, Bristol Highlands is near Interstate 94 and less than 5 miles away from the border of Wisconsin and Illinois.

Tim Thompson, HSA’s executive vice president and managing director of industrial brokerage, said in prepared remarks that HSA worked with the Village of Bristol to ensure that future tenants will be able to start shipping products from its new facility within one week of signing the lease. Jeff Hoffman and Chad Vande Zande from Cushman & Wakefield | Boerke in Milwaukee and Eric Fischer from Cushman & Wakefield’s Chicago office are in charge of marketing the properties.

Rising demand for e-commerce

Bob Smietana, vice chairman & CEO of HSA, said in prepared remarks that industrial projects like Bristol Highlands are critical to meet the growing e-commerce demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Smietana added in his prepared statement that the high demand from the e-commerce sector is causing warehouse and logistics businesses to expand their capabilities through last-mile distribution facilities like Bristol Highlands.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, demand for more industrial properties is rising throughout the country with 34 million square feet of positive net absorption in the first quarter. HSA is seeing the demand in many states, including Indiana, where the developer signed on American Residential Services for a 20,439-square-foot lease at its 104,400-square-foot industrial building.