2-Building Warehouse Breaks Ground in MD

By Keith Loria, Contributing Editor

Rendering of 102 Fulfillment Drive

Chesapeake Real Estate Group LLC, on behalf of TA Realty LLC, has started development on a two-building industrial site consisting of 350,000 square feet of warehouse space within the Trimble Road Business Park in Edgewood, Md. 

Earlier this year, TA Realty acquired the site from CREG. Construction is now underway at 102 Fulfillment Drive, which will include 210,000 square feet of speculative space, and 103 Fulfillment Drive, which will offer 140,450 square feet of space.

“The development philosophy of CREG continues to be to proactively construct real estate product to remain ahead of tenant demand,” Matt Laraway, CREG’s partner, said in a prepared statement. “We are extremely confident and excited to build another project in Harford County’s business-friendly environment and hope to capitalize on the strong market fundamentals.”

AGCO Corp. has already preleased 50,000 square feet of the latter building. Both buildings are expected to be delivered in 2019.

“The Trimble Road site works extremely well because it allows us to get quality products to our dealers more efficiently,” David Rubin, AGCO Corp.’s director of operations, imported equipment, said in a prepared statement. “The additional training space will increase our ability to keep both internal and external stakeholders informed on improvements, offerings and procedures.”

The Class A property at 102 Fulfillment Drive will boast 18 dock doors and two drive-in doors, with construction scheduled for the second quarter of 2019. The building at 103 Fulfillment Drive is also Class A, with nearly 90,000 square feet available. Both buildings will utilize the concrete tilt-up method of construction and will feature 32-foot clear ceiling heights and 7-inch unreinforced concrete floor slabs to accommodate heavy loads.

Both properties are located less than 3 miles from Interstate 95, and just 14 miles from Interstate 695. Additionally, the Port of Baltimore is only 24 miles away and the Baltimore-Washington International Airport is less than an hour’s drive. The site has access to approximately 50 percent of the U.S. population within a one-day truck drive.

CBRE’s Toby Mink, senior vice president and Jon Casella, first vice president, are leasing the buildings, in a partnership with CREG’s brokerage operation.

Demand for industrial increasing

CBRE’s most recent industrial report for the area revealed that the vacancy rate for warehouse space in the Harford County/Cecil County submarket consists of approximately 28 million square feet of space, and the market has recorded 1.2 million square feet of net absorption year-to-date in 2018.

Given the historically tight nature of the market and increasing demand from end-users, the report predicted industrial asking rates would increase over the next 12 to 18 months.

“Regionally, the volume of transactions remains unprecedented as retailers cannot gain access fast enough to large-scale warehouse buildings situated near major population centers to support the same-day or next-day delivery expectations of the American consumer,” Laraway said. “We are riding a wave that few have experienced in their real estate careers. Much of this activity is being driven by the tremendous liquidity in the capital markets, coupled with the insatiable demand for stabilized industrial product by institutional owners.”

In August, CREG and EverWest Real Estate Investors signed a 500,400-square-foot lease with Best Buy at Brandon Woods III in Anne Arundel County. CREG had purchased the 259-acre Illinois-based site from Exelon Corp. the previous summer, with plans to develop 1 million square feet of industrial space in a partnership with EverWest.

Image courtesy of Chesapeake Real Estate Group LLC