Exclusive: Tampa warehouse developers buy 60 acres near Port Tampa Bay
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jun 28, 2021

A pair of Tampa developers are planning a warehouse project near Port Tampa Bay that's enormous by urban infill standards.

Ken Morin and Bryan Sykes, who own Legacy Development Partners, on Friday closed on the acquisition of 60 acres at 4000 Causeway Blvd., which is across the street from Port Tampa Bay terminals. The developers declined to disclose a purchase price, and a deed has not yet been filed.

The seller is a group of Tampa investors who assembled multiple parcels in 2018, according to county records.

Legacy plans to build a total of 550,000 square feet of warehouse space, likely split between three buildings. One tenant has already been secured, though Morin and Sykes declined to identify them. Julia Silva, JLL Inc. managing director, has been retained to market the property for lease. The property is fully entitled, and Legacy said construction begins in 100 days.

Warehouses in urban areas were in high demand before the novel coronavirus pandemic. As online shopping skyrocketed for the pandemic, so did the demand for urban warehouse space as e-commerce operators race to get goods to consumers as quickly as possible. Legacy recently broke ground on another infill project — the 245,000-square-foot TIA Logistics Center, the largest speculative warehouse to begin construction near Tampa International Airport in 15 years.

Distribution users will be targeted for the development, Morin said, and cold storage is a possibility for the site.

"By virtue of its location, pretty much every user that's looking in this market would be a possibility," Morin said. <

Cold storage — temperature-controlled warehouses — is among the hottest sectors of commercial real estate as food and pharmaceutical companies look to build out direct-to-consumer supply chains in the pandemic's wake.

The port authority has been supportive of the development plans, Sykes said.

"The prospect of cold storage intrigues everyone," he said.