Post Picks Marshall – Uncongested Access Touted in Move to Chickasaw Trail
Thursday, December 10th 2015
NASHVILLE, TN – Post Consumer Brands will be the latest distribution company to move into quarters at Gateway Global Logistics Center in Marshall County.
Post Cereal is already operational in the initial 544,040 square feet of warehouse space and started receiving product November 11.
Panattoni Development Company and partners William Adair and the William Adair Family Trust announced they have signed a lease with Post to occupy a 677,160-square-foot speculative building situated just south of Volvo on Gateway Global Drive in the Chickasaw Trail Industrial Park.
Scott Abbott, development manager with Panattoni Development Company, said the lease by Panattoni is a submarket of the greater Memphis Industrial market. He cited factors such as the accessiblity of the warehouse by several routes – Highway 72, Highway 302/Goodman Road in Marshall County, I-385 in Tennessee, and the newly opened interchanges on the I-269 Memphis outer loop as considerations in the selection by Post.
“The access to an interstate highway system is unprecendented in the Memphis industrial market,” Abbott said.
“The Post lease is the second building at Gateway Global Logistics Center, on the heels of the one million-square-foot Volvo facility which opened earlier this year.”
The new Post facility is built to 554,040 square feet and an additional expansion of 123,120 square feet is under construction and expected to be ready for occupancy in May 2016.
Abbott said the current lease is set to run for six years.
He said the Post facility will distribute Post Foods and Mom Brands product and will employ 30 workers in Marshall County. He said this facility is the first speculative building ever built in Marshall County.
“With the signing of the Post lease, Panattoni has begun construction of Building 3 at GGLC in Marshall County,” he said. “The third building will be 544,040 square feet and expandable to 975,190 square feet.”
Whitfield Hamilton, Panattoni’s regional partner, said current activity in the Greater Memphis area is cause for optimism.
“We feel the timing is good to begin another speculative building,” Hamilton said. “The Volvo and Post buildings have certified Gateway Global Logistics Center as a premiere industrial/business park in the Mid-South region, and for that matter, the nation. With the Norfolk Southern Intermodal facility (in Rossville, Tennessee), I-269/I-385 and 1,600 acres of land offering Class A industrial sites both in Mississippi and Tennessee, we offer incredible flexibility, growth opportunity, and connectivity to customers and the entire country.”
GGLC offers a combination of built-to-suit, rail-served, manufacturing and speculative bulk industrial sites. The site offers direct access to a 570-acre Norfolk Southern Rossville Intermodal Terminal.
Justin Hall, executive director of Marshall County Industrial Development Authority, said William Adair and Panattoni are filling a need for warehouse space in North Mississippi and West Tennessee by building speculative buildings that are immediately available to prospects.
“There is a lack of available industrial building space in North Mississippi that is move-in ready,” he said.
The current market environment demands that industrial parks have ready-to-use warehousing space and ready-to-use sites in order to attract industries, he said. Those areas that lack shovel-ready or ready-to-use space are having a difficult time attracting large industry, he said. The presence of utilities –- water, sewer, gas, and electricity – at the Chickasaw Trail Industrial Park is a big incentive for new industries to choose Marshall County, and gives the county a competitive edge when talking to prospects, he said.
“We need to be ready at all times,” Hall said. “It separates us from counties that do not have ready space, rail, or greenspace sites.”
The environmental work and geological studies are already complete in the Chickasaw Trail, he said. The county has a demonstrable track record in landing and coming through for prospects who want to move to the Chickasaw Trail, he said. A new warehouse and distribution or large industrial manufacturing company can get into business within a year or less.
The third spec building under construction by WCA and Panattoni is continuing this trend, Hall said. As soon as one building is occupied, another is under construction. And the sites are of sufficient size that buildings can easily be expanded to suit new clients, he said.
“We would miss opportunities if we didn’t have these buildings there and ready to go,” Hall said.
He said having a prepared and skilled workforce at all times is key to attracting new prospects to the county from now on.