Packaging Maker Takes 500 KSF in Suburban Atlanta

Airport Logistics Center East. Image courtesy of CBRE

PAC Worldwide, a Seattle-based global manufacturer of custom packaging products, will be occupying a 500,000-square-foot Class A facility in Fulton County as its first location in Georgia, the office of Gov. Brian Kemp announced.

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The advanced manufacturing facility, in Union City, Ga., is expected to open this summer and create 400 jobs.

Airport Logistics Center East is located at 4900 S.W. Stonewall Tell Road. CBRE worked on behalf of the owner, TA Realty, to lease the property to PAC, Mark Hawks, senior vice president with CBRE Advisory & Transaction Services, Industrial & Logistics, told Commercial Property Executive.

TPA Group, of Atlanta, developed the building in 2020, according to information provided to CPE by CommercialEdge.

The building features ESFR fire sprinklers, column spacing of 56 by 50 feet, a maximum clear height of 36 feet and 248 parking spaces. The 39-acre site is subject to a 12-year unsubordinated net ground lease held by the Development Authority of Fulton County and expiring at the end of 2031, also according to CommercialEdge.

Surprisingly speedy

PAC Worldwide develops and manufactures such products as protective mailers and specialty packaging for the courier, e-commerce, fulfillment and distribution markets. Unsurprisingly, the privately owned company’s growth has been fueled in part by surging e-commerce.

PAC was founded in 1975 and currently employs more than 1,900 people in the U.S., U.K., Mexico and Malaysia.

Airport Logistics Center East. Image courtesy of CBRE

In a prepared statement, PAC Worldwide President Steve Foster cited proximity to customers and key suppliers, as well as a deep labor pool, as reasons to make Greater Atlanta part of the company’s U.S. footprint.

Despite the pandemic, the Atlanta industrial market is booming, with record levels of both quarterly and annual absorption, according to a fourth-quarter report from JLL.

“Large-block moves dominated 2020 demand with 38 moves totaling 22.0 million square feet, as occupiers reacted to meet e-commerce and fulfillment needs,” the report stated.

The Airport/South I-85 submarket has average total availability of 5.2 percent for manufacturing space, on an inventory of 12.2 million square feet and with no space either completed within the past year or now under construction, also according to JLL.