M2G Ventures and Pennybacker sold the more than 250,000-square-foot PROTO Park industrial project at 3200 Irving Blvd. in Dallas to Irvine, California-based Bendetti for an undisclosed amount.

The joint venture acquired PROTO Park in September 2020 and completed the redevelopment of the project in the fourth quarter of 2021. It transformed from a 1960s brick warehouse into a premier project of choice for logistics companies, consumer distribution tenants and e-commerce players unlike any other.

PROTO Park represents one of the most desirable infill locations in the DFW industrial market by filling a much-needed niche in the West Brookhollow submarket. Strategically located between I-35, State Highways 183 and 114, the project is three miles from Uptown Dallas, four miles from Dallas Love Field, and five miles from Downtown Dallas, making it an ideal last-mile location easily accessible from the city’s most affluent and densely populated areas.

Besserer said M2G’s strategy and ingenuity influenced each design decision down to suite locations. He credits the project’s success with M2G’s laser focus on attracting a great tenant base. The property is 100% leased to Morrison Supply, Taxila Stone, Preziosa Stone, Dynasty Distilling and an undisclosed international aviation group.

Newmark Vice Chairmen Dustin Volz and Stephen Bailey, Senior Managing Director Dom Espinosa, Managing Director Zach Riebe, Analyst Travis McEldowney and Transaction Manager Caroline Wilson represented M2G Ventures in the sale to Bendetti. Stream Realty Partners Senior Vice President Sarah Ozanne and Vice President Lena Pierce Thomas represented M2G for leasing.

Leasing momentum for M2G-developed properties continues in West Brookhollow, Besserer said. The company’s six-building Archetype at 3131 Irving Blvd., made for light industrial, flex, showroom and retail, currently has 5k to 25k SF available. Additionally, Woodall at 4919 Woodall St., is a perfect choice for logistics, showroom, distribution, manufacturing or e-commerce for a single-tenant user with up to 50k SF available.

Stream Realty Partners announced the expansion and relocation of Tigerhawk Logistics, a Houston-based logistics company within Portside Logistics Center, an industrial development in the highly sought-after Southeast Houston industrial submarket.

Tigerhawk Logistics has substantially expanded its presence within the logistics center, more than doubling its space from 135,285 square feet in Building 2 to an impressive 328,048 square feet in Building 1. This strategic expansion underscores Tigerhawk Logistics’ steadfast commitment to continuous growth and operational excellence.

As part of the expansion, Stream’s Construction Management team is actively building out a custom designed office space, amongst other improvements, for Tigerhawk Logistics within Building 1, further enhancing the tenant experience.

Portside Logistics Center, a Joint-Venture development between Principal Asset Management and Stream Realty Partners, is located at 4838 and 4908 Borusan Road in Baytown, Texas. The premier industrial development boasts over 1 million square feet and offers immediate access to Grand Parkway (State Highway 99), Interstate 10, Highway 225, and Highway 146, allowing expedited access to Port Houston’s two container terminals – Barbour’s Cut and Bayport. 

Portside Logistics Center offers multiple configurations and size ranges from 432,316 square feet in a cross-dock configuration (divisible to 216,158 square feet) and a 258,248-square-foot front-load building (divisible to 122,963 square feet). Both buildings were developed to the highest standards, featuring speculative office space, LED warehouse lights (two per bay), a white-boxed interior warehouse, painted columns, caulked control joints, and fully fenced and secured truck courts. The project is seeking LEED certification.

Stream Managing Director Tyler Maner and Executive Vice President Jeremy Lumbreras serve as the leasing agents for the project and helped complete the deal. Robinson heads up the development management alongside Tyler Wellborn, Craig McKenna, Matthew Sibley and Kristina Gibson. Tigerhawk was represented in lease negotiations by Grant Hortenstine and Pearce Martens with CBRE in Houston.

Building 1 has 432,316 square feet available for immediate occupancy. Building 2 is available (258,248 square feet) and divisible to 122,963 square feet. For more information, contact Stream Houston at 713.300.0300.

Why is the U.S. industrial vacancy rate rising? Research from Colliers suggests a simple reason: The number of new industrial facilities delivered by developers continues to outpace the demand from tenants for new warehouse and manufacturing space.

That’s the takeaway from Colliers’ first-quarter national U.S. industrial report released last month. But there is good news in the report, too. Colliers says that the vacancy increases should stop as new industrial construction slows, something that is already happening.

In its report, Colliers said that industrial construction completions outstripped tenant demand for the seventh quarter in a row in the first quarter of this year. That pushed the U.S. average industrial vacancy rate up 50 basis points to 6.1% during the quarter, the highest that figure has been since early 2015.

Industrial vacancy rates increased in 61 of the 77 markets tracked by Colliers between January and March.

In another sign that the industrial market is slowing, Colliers reported that net industrial absorption during the first quarter came in at only 28 million square feet. That’s the lowest this figure has been in more than a decade and is 65% lower than the 81 million square feet absorbed in the first quarter of 2023.

Developers delivered more than 120 million square feet of new industrial space during the first quarter. That is down from more than 154 million square feet in the fourth quarter of 2023 and 140 million square feet in the first quarter of 2023.

The more interesting number, though, is the amount of industrial space under construction. Colliers said that developers had more than 384 million square feet of new industrial properties under construction in the first quarter. That’s a large number, but it’s lower than the more than 447 million square feet under construction in the fourth quarter of last year and significantly less than the 690 million square feet being built in the first quarter of 2023.

Those construction numbers are a sign that developers are pulling back in the amount of new industrial space that they are adding across the country. As new industrial construction slows, tenants might struggle to find the space they need. That should increase demand and result in vacancy rates in this sector dropping again.

JCB on June 4 began work on a $500 million factory in San Antonio, Texas, the biggest investment in the company’s history.

An official groundbreaking ceremony at the site marked the beginning of construction, where The Hon. Alice Bamford, the daughter of company Chairman Anthony Bamford, turned the first shovelful of dirt on the property.

Work on the 720,000 sq. ft. (67,000m²) factory is now under way on the 400-acre site. It will be the company’s second largest plant, rivalled only by JCB’s world headquarters in Rocester, Staffordshire, England, and create 1,500 new jobs over five years.

The factory will make Loadall telescopic handlers and aerial access equipment, with production scheduled to start in 2026. The factory will also have the capacity to expand and build other products in the future.

Chairman Lord Bamford said: “Construction equipment manufacturers sell more than 300,000 machines every year in North America, making it the single largest market in the world. JCB has been growing its share of this important market steadily over the past few years and the time is now right to invest in our manufacturing capacity in North America, where we already have one factory.”

“JCB really has come a considerable way since we sold our first machine here 60 years ago and it gives me immense pleasure to see how our business has grown in North America. Today really is a milestone day in the history of our family company,” Bamford says.

In good news for the commercial real estate market, 80% of U.S.-based CRE professionals said in a recent survey that they expect to buy or sell property within the next six months.

That would be a boon to the commercial real estate industry, which is still waiting for owners and investors to begin buying and selling industrial facilities, office buildings and retail centers in higher numbers once again.

The positive news came from Altus Group‘s second quarter 2024 CRE Industry Conditions & Sentiment Survey released on June 12. The quarterly survey contains feedback from 560 commercial real estate professionals representing more than 97 firms in the United States and Canada. Altus Group surveyed these professionals from March 25 to April 29.

One of the bigger takeaways from this report is the willingness among respondents to make real estate deals. Commercial real estate sales have been slow since the Federal Reserve Board first began tweaking its benchmark interest rate. Now that the Fed has said it will no longer increase this rate, the hope is that investors and owners will begin selling and buying commercial real estate in larger numbers.

With 80% of U.S. survey respondents saying that they do plan to buy or sell in the next six months, it does look like the Fed’s decision to no longer increase its benchmark rate will spur more sales activity in the commercial real estate sector.

The survey found, too, that 91% of the largest firms said that they intend to transact during the next six months. That is up from 83% in the first quarter of 2024.

And what asset classes will investors buy? Four the fourth consecutive quarter, respondents told Altus Group that industrial and multifamily properties are expected to be the best performers during the next 12 months. U.S. respondents also said that retail is expected to be attractive, too.

Not surprisingly, respondents cited office as the expected worst performer during the next 12 months.

This willingness to make deals doesn’t mean that U.S. commercial real estate professionals aren’t worried about the country’s economy. The number of U.S. respondents who told Altus Group that a recession is “very likely” or “somewhat likely” in the next six months increased by 7 percentage points from the previous quarter.

This means that the majority of respondents — 70% — say that a recession is either “somewhat likely” or “somewhat unlikely” in the next six months. This indicates plenty of uncertainty.

In other results from Altus’ study, 49% of respondents said that they expect interest rates to remain stable during the next 12 months. Surprisingly, 25% of respondents said that they expected interest rates to rise during the next 12 months. That is up 16 percentage points when compared to the first quarter of this year.

Altus Group reported that 26% of respondents expected interest rates to fall by 20 percentage points in the next year.

More than a third of respondents — 37% — said that they expected increased availability of capital in the next year, a jump of nine percentage points from the last quarter. However, 40% of respondents said that they expected the cost of capital to increase in the next 12 months. That figure is up 12 percentage points from the first quarter of 2024.

And when it comes to revenue growth? Respondents to Altus Group’s survey were generally optimistic.

A total of 62% of survey participants said that they expected revenue growth to be stable during the next 12 months, while 19% expect revenue growth to increase. That latest figure represents a modest increase of two percentage points from the first quarter of the year.