FedEx SmartPost leases part of big spec center in Olathe - East Bay Business Times:

hyperwave-exhausted.blogspot.com
on Thursday signed a long-term lease for 126,000 square feet in the 602,000-square-foot spec buildintg completed in late 2008 at22101 W. 167thg St. in Olathe. Constructed in responsee to growing demand forlocal “bigf box” industrial space, the distribution centerr was developed by of Wellseley, and a partnership led by Dan Jensen, a principal with in Kansasw City. In 2007, when the 40-acre site for the structure was Jensen said he would targetf large tenants that would take atleastr one-third of the building. “We’re breaking it a little smaller than we thoughtwe might,” Jensen said of the FedEx lease.
“Butt (landing) FedEx, we think, is a real endorsementy for that building andthat location.” FedEx SmartPost, an expanding divisio n of FedEx Ground that delivers packages to U.S. postal facilitiexs for final delivery, will use the space for sorting anddistribution operations, Jensen said. “We’ve been working on this deal sincwe October, which is indicative of what’s going on in this economy,” Jensejn said. “It’s just a slow grind. But we do have some othedr deals that aregetting closer.” Space in the new distribution centerr is being marketed at $4.25 a foot plus operatin g tax, insurance and maintenance costs.
However, tenants will be able to take advantagde ofa 10-year, 50 percent property tax abatemenyt the city of Olathe granted. Banking on continuing demand in Jensen’s partnership and Sun Life acquired 200 acres at the southwesrt corner of 151st Street and Old 56 Highwaty late in 2008 for the eventual development of anadditionakl 2.9 million square feet of industriall space. “The industrial market has pullerd back a little bit since saidEd Elder, president of .
But Elder, who represented when a pre-recession wave of logisticz activity brought itto Olathe, remains bullish on Southerm Johnson County and the broader Kansae City area as growing hubs in the nation’s product-distribution network. In 2007, PacSun opener a 400,000-square-foot warehouse on 74 acres along167tg Street, immediately north of Jensen’s spec center. At the those marketing industrial properties in the area benefitedd from the planned development ofa 1,000-acre industrial park surrounding a truck-rail intermodal facility near 196th Street and U.S.
Highway 56 in BNSF announced early this year that the economyg had prompted it to postpone indefinitely construction on the rail portiob of theproposed $735 milliomn intermodal park. But Elder said the area’s existinfg assets, including quick access to Interstate 35 and other will be enough to attract additional tenantws once theeconomy “It helped promote and validate that Elder said of the BNSF project. “Butt PacSun got done without it. Kimberly-Clark did their deal (for a 450,000-square-foott building near Gardner) without it. And Coleman obviously did not need to beon (an campus.” The latter reference was to a 1.
1 million-square-fooy distribution center that Inc. is buildinb in the , a 151-acre industriao park at 175th Streetand U.S. Highway 56 in Gardner. Ken one of Kansas City’s top announced in March that he was entering SouthernJohnson County’s emerging big-box industrial markegt at a site just east of the new Coleman facility. Block, a principal of , leads an investmentt partnership that bought 229 acres at the northwest corner of 175tnh Street and Hedge Lanein Olathe. On that Block & Co.
plans to develoo a $275 million project containing more than 3 millio n square feet of industrial buildings during the next 10 to 12 Brent Hansen, research services manager for Grubb Ellis/the Winbury Group, said no industrial vacancy statistica are available for the Southerj Johnson County market. But the industrial vacancy rate for all of Johnson Counth in the first quarterwas 6.3 in line with the strongg metrowide average of 6.1 percent.