ProLogis Lands New Leases in Central Ohio

Denver-based ProLogis has leased additional space at ProLogis Park 70-Etna–in development near Columbus, Ohio–to current customers at the site. The tenants are California-based Menlo Worldwide Logistics and Texas-based SpeedFC. SpeedFC will add another 158,000 square feet to arrive at a total rental of 318,000 square feet. Menlo Worldwide will expand its current rental of 311,000 square feet with the addition of another 150,000 square feet.Prologis already has three buildings in development at the park is a 220-acre facility. These have a combined area of 1.6 million square feet. Plans now call for the park to include five facilities with a total of 3.4 million square feet. ProLogis already owns, manages and is developing another 11 million square feet of industrial space in Ohio, representing about 12-16% of its global portfolio. Its clients there include Nippon Express, Office Depot, Fed Ex and Kraft. Brian Marsh, senior vice president and regional head of operations for ProLogis, explained to CPN that Central Ohio continues to be an ideal distribution location due to its low land cost, availability of labor and proximity to 58 percent of the US population and 50 percent of Canada’s. Columbus is also capable of supporting 61 percent of U.S. manufacturing capacity, as it is within one day by truck travel. He added that ProLogis Park 70-Etna is in particular a strategically located property. “It offers direct connections to Interstate 70 and access to a large labor force. The hiring and retention of a good work force is critical to our customers’ success,” he said. It also provides easy access to Port Columbus International Airport and Rickenbacker Intermodal Terminal, he added. It also offers a full array of economic incentives including 15-year tax abatements and Foreign Trade Zone benefits.Prologis also recently announced a major green initiative, saying that all of Prologis’s new U.S. development will comply with U.S Green Building Council’s environmental standards. This initiative will include plans to register all buildings for LEED certification and the training all project managers in North America on sustainability and LEED standards. In global moves, ProLogis has continued to expand in China, where it has added another 613,000 square feet to ProLogis Park Suzhou. To further its domestic and global growth, the company recently started four new funds, and its funds now total more than $14 billion.