Exclusive: Developer to build speculative warehouse near Tampa International Airport
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Nov 18, 2020

A Jacksonville developer will break ground speculatively on a warehouse near Tampa International Airport in early 2021.

Chestnut Hill Investments, whose Tampa projects include the 390,000-square-foot Cabot Commerce Center at Aprile Farms, is moving forward with the Airport Logistics Center on West Linebaugh Avenue.

The new warehouse is 125,400 square feet. Grandview Partners is the capital partner on the project.

The property, which Chestnut Hill acquired earlier this year for $2.45 million, is at the very northern boundary of what's considered the airport submarket for industrial real estate. It was an assemblage of two parcels, said John Jackson, a director with Cushman & Wakefield Inc., who is marketing the warehouse for lease.

"When these sites come up there’s generally a lot of competition," Jackson said, "but there are very few sites in the airport submarket that can handle 100,000 square feet."

It's been a banner year for industrial real estate in the Tampa Bay area. The market was hot prior to the novel coronavirus pandemic, but the pandemic forced more consumers to turn to online shopping, driving demand for additional warehouse space. In the airport submarket, Jackson said, there's very little availability.

He expects the property to be leased before completion in late 2021 and said it's a prime candidate for a last-mile delivery facility. Last-mile facilities are the last stop a product makes before being delivered directly to customers.

"If you’re a user and want to do over 50,000 square feet, you have no option," he said. "So it’s highly possible we’ll end up with one user that takes the whole thing."