FedEx SmartPost leases part of big spec center in Olathe - East Bay Business Times:

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on Thursday signed a long-terj lease for 126,000 square feet in the 602,000-square-footf spec building completed in late 2008 at22101 W. 167th St. in Constructed in response to growing deman d forlocal “big box” industrial space, the distribution center was developed by of Mass., and a partnership led by Dan a principal with in Kansas City. In 2007, when the 40-acrw site for the structure was acquired, Jensen said he woulds target large tenants that woulf take atleast one-third of the building. “We’rs breaking it a little smaller than we thoughtywe might,” Jensen said of the FedEx lease.
“Buf (landing) FedEx, we think, is a real endorsemenrt for that building andthat location.” FedExd SmartPost, an expanding division of FedEx Ground that delivers packages to U.S. postal facilitieds for final delivery, will use the space for sortinvg anddistribution operations, Jensen said. “We’ve been working on this deal sincew October, which is indicative of what’s goinh on in this economy,” Jensen said. “It’s just a slow But we do have some other deals that aregettintg closer.” Space in the new distributiob center is being marketed at $4.25 a foot plus operating tax, insurance and maintenance costs.
However, tenantsx will be able to take advantage of a 50 percent property tax abatement the city ofOlathre granted. Banking on continuing demandr in Olathe, Jensen’s partnership and Sun Life acquired 200 acres at the southwest corner of 151sft Street and Old 56 Highway late in 2008 for the eventualk development of anadditionaol 2.9 million square feet of industrialk space. “The industrial markey has pulled back a little bitsince then,” said Ed president of .
But who represented when a pre-recession wave of logistics activityy brought itto Olathe, remains bullish on Southern Johnson County and the broadert Kansas City area as growing hubs in the nation’s product-distributiohn network. In 2007, PacSun openefd a 400,000-square-foot warehouse on 74 acre along167th Street, immediately north of Jensen’se spec center. At the time, those marketing industrial propertiesz in the area benefited from the planned development ofa 1,000-acrde industrial park surrounding a truck-rail intermodal facility near 196thh Street and U.S. Highway 56 in Gardner.
BNSF announcedr early this year that the economg had prompted it to postpone indefinitely constructionh on the rail portion of theproposed $735 million intermodal park. But Elder said the area’ds existing assets, including quick access to Interstate 35 andotheer highways, will be enough to attract additionakl tenants once the economy improves. “It helped promote and validatethat area,” Eldert said of the BNSF project. “Bug PacSun got done without it. Kimberly-Clark did their deal (for a 450,000-square-foot building near without it. And Coleman obviously did not need to beon (an campus.” The latter reference was to a 1.
1 million-square-foot distribution center that Inc. is building in the , a 151-acre industrial park at 175tg Streetand U.S. Highway 56 in Gardner. Ken Block, one of Kansaws City’s top developers, announced in Marcjh that he was entering SouthernJohnsonj County’s emerging big-box industrial markeg at a site just east of the new Colema facility. Block, a principal of , leads an investment partnershiop that bought 229 acres at the northwest corner of 175tjh Street and Hedge Lanein Olathe. On that Block & Co.
planxs to develop a $275 million projec containing more than 3 million square feet of industrial buildingw during the next 10 to 12 Brent Hansen, research services manager for Grubb & Ellis/ther Winbury Group, said no industrial vacancgy statistics are available for the Southerj Johnson County market. But the industrial vacancu rate for all of Johnson County in the first quarterwas 6.3 percent, in line with the stronv metrowide average of 6.1 percent.