SOUTHAVEN, Miss. – Hillwood has acquired the 619,000-square-foot Airways Distribution Center, Building 1 facility in Southaven, Mississippi from Helen of Troy, which will continue to occupy the distribution center through April of this year. Beginning May 1, 2006, the space will be available for lease to users between 200,000 and 619,000 square feet.
This transaction, along with the two speculative buildings that the company is developing at DeSoto Trade Center, allows Hillwood to offer more than 1.4 million square feet of prime distribution space for lease in the Memphis market in the second quarter of this year. Hillwood began construction last October on the 552,000-square-foot DeSoto Trade Center 3 building and the 301,000-square-foot DeSoto Trade Center 4 building. “After making 2.4 million square feet of build-to-suit and spec lease deals last year at DeSoto Trade Center, Hillwood continues to be bullish on the Memphis market, which has been one of the most active in the country,” said T. Preston Herold, vice president for Hillwood Investment Properties. “With the Class A distribution space the company has coming online in the next few months, Hillwood will be able to accommodate deals ranging from 50,000 to 619,000 square feet in state-of-the art buildings that feature tremendous cost-saving incentives.” Recently Foreign Trade Zone status was approved for the 450 acres that were added to DeSoto Trade Center in 2004. Foreign Trade Zone #262 now includes the entire 680-acre business park, which also features outstanding access to Interstates 55 and 40; is within 10 miles of the FedEx hub and the UPS center at Memphis International Airport; and is close to the Memphis rail yard. Located at 101 Industrial Drive, Airways Distribution Center, Building 1 is within three miles of Memphis International Airport, provides immediate access to Interstate 55 and features 10-year real and personal property tax exemptions available from the city and the county. As the largest suburban area of Memphis, DeSoto County offers a large labor base. The area also benefits from aggressive incentives and streamlined approval processes offered by the city of Southaven, DeSoto County, and the State of Mississippi. Dan Wilkinson of Collier Wilkinson Snowden and Richard Burnette of The Burnette Company will handle the leasing at Airways Distribution Center, Building 1 in addition to their responsibilities at DeSoto Trade Center. Desoto Trade Center currently consists of three completed buildings totaling just over 2.4 million square feet, an 865,000 square-foot distribution center, which Hillwood is developing for Kuehne + Nagel, and 415 acres for additional industrial development. The 680-acre DeSoto Trade Center has the capacity for 16 buildings totaling more than 11 million square feet. Hillwood, a Perot company, is ranked as one of the top commercial real estate developers in the country and the top residential developer in Dallas-Fort Worth. The company’s developments currently house facilities for 81 companies listed on either the Fortune 500, Global 500 or Forbes List of Top Private firms. Hillwood is best known for its development of the 17,000-acre AllianceTexas development, located 15 miles northwest of DFW Airport; the $420-million American Airlines Center and Victory district near downtown Dallas; and AllianceCalifornia, the 2,000-acre logistics center near Los Angeles.News Article | 2/21/2006