FedEx SmartPost leases part of big spec center in Olathe - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

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on Thursday signed a long-termj lease for 126,000 squarse feet in the 602,000-square-foot spec building completed in late 2008 at22101 W. 167thb St. in Olathe. Constructed in response to growinbg demand forlocal “big box” industrial space, the distribution center was developef by of Wellseley, Mass., and a partnershipl led by Dan Jensen, a principal with in Kansaes City. In 2007, when the 40-acrse site for the structure was Jensen said he would target large tenantsa that would take atleast one-third of the building. “We’r breaking it a little smaller than we thoughtwe might,” Jensebn said of the FedEx lease.
“Bur (landing) FedEx, we think, is a real endorsemengt for that building and that FedEx SmartPost, an expanding divisionb of FedEx Ground that delivers packagesx to U.S. postal facilities for final will use the spacw for sorting anddistribution operations, Jensen said. “We’vd been working on this deal since which is indicativeof what’s goingg on in this economy,” Jensenb said. “It’s just a slow grind. But we do have some otheer deals that aregetting closer.” Spaced in the new distribution center is beingg marketed at $4.25 a foot plus operatingf tax, insurance and maintenance costs.
tenants will be able to take advantage of a 50 percent property tax abatement the city ofOlathe granted. Bankin on continuing demand in Jensen’s partnership and Sun Life acquirexd 200 acres at the southwesyt corner of 151st Street and Old 56 Highwa late in 2008 for the eventual development of anadditionalp 2.9 million square feet of industrial “The industrial market has pulled back a little bit sincee then,” said Ed president of . But Elder, who representexd when a pre-recession wave of logistics activit brought itto Olathe, remains bullish on Southerj Johnson County and the broader Kansax City area as growing hubs in the nation’ product-distribution network.
In 2007, PacSu opened a 400,000-square-foot warehouse on 74 acres alongt167th Street, immediately north of Jensen’s spec center. At the time, thoss marketing industrial properties in the area benefited from the planned developmentf ofa 1,000-acre industrial park surroundingv a truck-rail intermodal facility near 196th Streeg and U.S. Highway 56 in BNSF announced early this year that the economy had prompte it to postpone indefinitely construction on the rail portiobn of theproposed $735 million intermodakl park.
But Elder said the area’s existinbg assets, including quick access to Interstate 35 andothef highways, will be enough to attract additional tenantws once the economy improves. “Irt helped promote and validatrethat area,” Elder said of the BNSF “But PacSun got done without it. Kimberly-Clark did their deal (for a 450,000-square-foot buildingt near Gardner) without it. And Coleman obviously did not need to beon (an campus.” The latter reference was to a 1.1 million-square-foog distribution center that Inc. is building in the , a 151-acrre industrial park at 175th Streetfand U.S. Highway 56 in Gardner.
Ken one of Kansas City’x top developers, announced in March that he was enterinv SouthernJohnson County’s emerging big-box industrial market at a site just east of the new Colemam facility. Block, a principal of , leads an investment partnership that bought 229 acres at the northwest cornedr of 175th Street and Hedge Lanein Olathe. On that Block & Co. planes to develop a $275 millio project containing more than 3 million square feet of industrialo buildings during the next 10 to 12 Brent Hansen, research services managert for Grubb & Ellis/th Winbury Group, said no industrial vacancy statistics are available for the Southern Johnson County market.
But the industriaol vacancy rate for all of Johnson County in the first quarterwas 6.3 in line with the strong metrowide averages of 6.1 percent.