Cushman & Wakefield Wins Leasing Assignment for 708,000-Sq.-Ft. Spec Industrial

PRLog (Press Release) - Aug. 1, 2012 - Real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield, Inc. has been tapped to exclusively market First Logistics Center @ I-83, a 708,000-square-foot speculative industrial facility set for construction at 20 Leo Lane in York, Pa. The developer of the $34 million project, First Industrial Realty Trust, has awarded the leasing assignment to the Cushman & Wakefield of Pennsylvania, Inc. team of Patrick McBride, Gerry Blinebury, Jr., Adam Campbell and Leah Balerno.

Available for occupancy in the summer of 2013, First Logistics Center @ I-83 is situated at Exit 24 of I-83 in southeastern Pennsylvania. The location provides direct highway access to Interstates 81, 76, 78, 70 and 95, and is within minutes of FedEx and UPS hubs. The cross-docked distribution building will feature 32-foot ceiling heights, parking for 233 automobiles and 194 trailers, and signage opportunities with high visibility from I-83. The site, which was acquired recently by First Industrial, is also within one-day access of more than 44 million households.

"Given current demand by large distribution users in this submarket, we cannot emphasize enough how critical it is that First Industrial opted to invest in constructing this state-of-the-art facility in York right now," said McBride. "This decision clearly demonstrates the stellar performance of the I-81 and I-78 Distribution Corridor, its resilience throughout the recent economic cycle and favorable growth prospects. We anticipate that this facility will attract considerable interest from prospective tenants."

"Pennsylvania's I-81 and I-78 Distribution Corridor has clearly emerged as a national leader in new industrial construction," said Blinebury. "The market currently has 12 big-box projects, a mix of spec and build to suit, under way or ready to launch, with nine of those projects topping 700,000 square feet. "The market's vacancy of 9.5 percent is down 2.2 percentage points over a year ago, and vacancies for big-box space are considerably lower than that.

"In addition to current speculative construction, there is more than five million square feet of build-to-suit construction underway. This impressive tenant activity in this market in the first half of 2012 has provided a major impetus for build-to-suit construction as well," said Blinebury. "Overall, a number of projects are now moving ahead with lightning speed, in response to strong prospect activity."

Cushman & Wakefield, Inc.'s industrial brokerage platform provides global resources and local expertise for tenant and landlord representation, disposition and acquisition services, transaction management, and industrial consulting including labor and demographic analysis. In 2011, in the U.S. alone, this group completed more than 6,100 industrial real estate transactions - totaling 225 million square feet - with an aggregate value in excess of $6.5 billion.