DCT® Featured on Dallas Business Journal: Exclusive: Developer buys tract next to Amazon.com hubs for new project in Grapevine

May 24, 2017

An Article on Houston Business Journal by Candace Carlisle

Exclusive: Developer buys tract next to Amazon.com hubs for new project in Grapevine

DALLAS - Denver-based real estate investment and development firm DCT Industrial Trust Inc. has acquired a tract adjacent to two massive Amazom.com distribution hub with plans to develop the second phase of an industrial park in Grapevine.

The 12.88-acre tract east of the intersection of Enchanted Way and Bass Pro Drive is slated to include a two-building complex totaling 194,000 square feet of industrial space, which will expand DCT's original Freeport West vision.

'This corridor is really changing with Amazon's two 1 million-square-foot buildings, and the neighborhood has really started to change,' Art Barkley, a senior vice president at DCT Industrial, told the Dallas Business Journal in an exclusive interview.

'This corridor has become distribution central,' Barkley added. 'There are a number of ways in and out of that neighborhood with great access to Interstate 635 and State Highway 121.'

DC T Industrial represented itself in the deal. Damian Rivera of Dallas-based E Smith Realty Partners represented the seller, Fellowship Church.

The developer had worked with the church in the past to acquire and develop a 7-acre site it sold to DCT Industrial years ago. That experience went well and so DCT Industrial began working with Fellowship Church and city leaders to approve zoning to develop DCT Freeport West's next phase of buildings.

Barkley said it took some time, but everyone soon began recognizing the opportunity to make the corridor a distribution hub, especially with developable land sites being few and far between.

'We are running out of developable land in proximity to major roadways and the airport, which I can't believe I'm saying in Dallas, Texas,' Barkley said

'There's a perception in the marketplace that Dallas is full of maverick developers that will build up any change they can, but they can't do that near the airport because there's not enough land to support that approach,' he added.

DCT Industrial hired Dallas-based Pross Design Group to design the two distribution warehouse buildings, one of which will total about 110,000 square feet and the second totaling about 84,000 square feet of industrial space.

The developer could go speculative on the project, but has hired a leasing team to determine the market demand for the two buildings.

Brad Struck and Jim Hazard of Dallas-based E Smith Realty Partners were hired to market the two new buildings, called DCT Freeport West buildings 2 and 3.

Barkley said DCT Industrial would like to lease up two buildings that are either coming to market or was recently completed before starting its latest project.

DCT DFW Trade Center, a 112,000-square-foot building in Coppell, is slated for completion in July. DCT Waters Ridge, a 347 ,000-square-foot building in Lewisville, is about 52 percent leased with about 165,000 square feet of industrial space left to lease.

North Texas' industrial real estate has been firing on all cylinders with a number of deals closing in the first quarter and more expected throughout this year. Last year's record-breaking year seems to be setting the tone for this year's deals, brokers say.

E-commerce seems to be a big driver behind the industrial real estate deals closing so far this year as Dallas-Fort Worth cements itself in becoming a major U S. distribution hub.