Lease-Up Puts 950,000-SF Plan Into Action

COPPELL, TX-With the last block filled in a 600,000-sf distribution center, Hillwood is pulling a 950,000-sf plan off the drafting table for Tradepoint Business Park. The industrial space will rise in stages, but it will start to go up this year.

Hillwood’s options are to add 350,000 sf to the 600,000-sf Building 1 at 980 Bethel Rd. or roll out another flex design just like the first one. “We have not decided which one we will do first,” T. Preston Herold, vice president of Hillwood Investment Properties, tells GlobeSt.com.

The development talk was triggered by a 62,500-sf lease of shell space that’s been available for several years. “It was surprising it was vacant for so long,” Herold says. “All of a sudden, we had a fight for it. Two deals hit at once.” He says it boiled down to whoever signed the lease first. That was Houston-based T&L Distributing Co. Inc., which will pick up 20,000 sf of extra room, including a showroom, when it moves from a nearby location.

“We did put an aggressive deal out there as a market play to gain interest in the site,” Herold admits. The quoted rate was $3.25 per sf and $3 per sf for the tenant-improvement allowance. T&L’s long-term lease kicks in April 1. Its brokers were Tyson Erwin and Rick Medinis with Dallas-based NAI Robert Lynn. Herold teamed with Kacy Jones and Jim Brice from Holt Lunsford Commercial, also in Dallas, to work out Hillwood’s terms.

The Calhoun, GA-based Mohawk Industries Inc. occupies 537,500 sf of the warehouse. Hillwood bought the building and 70-acre balance of the Tradepoint land in January 2003.

With occupancy now at 100%, Herold says Hillwood has jumped into amending the site plan, which is mapped out for 1.3 million sf in three buildings. If Herold’s call is on target, Hillwood will “easily” be breaking ground on spec space before the year ends.