Panattoni Moving Forward With Phase Two of Industrial Park
Wednesday, May 17th 2017
Since it first broke ground in 2014, Panattoni Development Co.’s Gateway Global Logistics Center has delivered 4.4 million square feet of industrial facilities, $276 million in investment and almost 700 jobs to a formerly vacuous tract of land spanning the Tennessee-Mississippi border.
And now that the first phase of the project is wrapping up, the developers are hoping to carry that momentum north of Highway 72.
“Now they’re starting what we’re calling Phase Two,” CBRE senior vice president Jim Mercer said. “It’s got 300 acres and we figured we can get about 5 million square feet on that side of the road.”
CBRE has partnered with Panattoni and WCA Land and Development to market Gateway Global for build-to-suit projects, land sales and speculative development.
Mercer said site development has already begun on Phase Two’s first project, a new 554,000-square-foot spec building that is expected to wrap up this September.
“The interesting thing about that building is that it is going to be expandable to 1.5 million square feet and that would be the biggest spec building in the market,” Mercer said.
Interest in the site began in 2012 when Norfolk Southern Railway opened the largest intermodal facility in its 22-state network in Rossville, Tennessee, opening the door for industrial development to grow in the once bucolic area.
Currently, five major projects have already been completed at the massive 1,500-acre industrial park that straddles the border of Fayette County in Tennessee and Marshall County in Mississippi.
Volvo’s 1-million-square-foot facility delivered in 2014 was the first major development that set the tone going forward.
“That was a flagship deal and really helped validate the park,” Panattoni’s Whitfield Hamilton told The Daily News at that time. “We really feel like it’s a long-haul type of location that will get better with each deal and entry into that submarket.”
Next came Post Consumer Brand’s 677,500-square-foot building in 2015, followed by
Niagara Bottling’s 554,000-square-foot facility that closed at the end of 2016 and T&B Corp.’s 1.5-million-square-foot facility on the Fayette County side of the development.
Most recently, McCormick & Co. signed a lease for 615,000 square feet and will move in May 1. CRBE’s Patrick Burke represented McCormick with that lease.
“The exciting thing is, three years ago there was nothing out there, and now we have 4.4 million square feet and growing and just started this second phase,” Mercer said.
In addition the current spec project, the other three or four buildings on the north side of Highway 72 will be anywhere from 600,000 to 1.2 million square feet, Mercer said.
To support this industrial influx, two major infrastructure projects are underway.
First, Highway 72, which drops from four lanes to two as it crosses into Mississippi, is being widened to four lanes. This project is expected to wrap up by the end of the year.
Secondly, I-269, which is currently open from Highway 385 to Goodman Road, will be expanded westward to tie into I-55 in DeSoto County. That project will also wrap up by the year-end or first quarter of 2018.
“So that’s one of the things about this site that captivates people, is its connectivity,” Mercer said. “Out here, you can take two right turns and be on the interstate, so I don’t think there is another park on the market that has that connectivity to the interstate system.”
By Patrick Lantrip