by: Michael W Spain Senior Vice President Bradford Commercial Real Estate Services The CentrePort Business Park (CentrePort) consists of approximately 8.1 million square feet of industrial space, with the breakdown being 1.1 million square feet of flex product and 7.2 million square feet of warehouse/shallow bay product. CentrePort is a 350 acre master planned, deed restricted business campus that is located in the middle of the Metroplex, approximately 17 miles from both downtowns of Dallas & Fort Worth, 2 miles south of DFW International Airport. The park benefits from superior transportation infrastructure with easy access to Highway 183, State Highway 360 and The President George Bush Turnpike. CentrePort is a transient-oriented business community that is also served by the Trinity Railway Express which offers park and ride opportunities for the employee base and dedicated bus service throughout the park. CentrePort houses many large corporations such as American Airlines, Uniden, Bank of America, Novo 1, Cott Beverage, to name a few.
The lack of having the Triple Freeport Tax Exemption combined with economic and infrastructure issues caused the vacancy rate to reach 28% at the close of 2004. However, as the park continued to evolve with improvements in the infrastructure, a growing synergy created with the addition of multi-family and retail projects, and the passing of the Triple Freeport Tax Exemption by theHEBSchool District have led to increased market activity. As a result the overall vacancy has steadily declined to its current rate of 17%, which is higher than the overall vacancy rate of 13% for all the Great Southwest Submarket. The majority of the vacancy rate can be attributed to a handful of large vacancies among the warehouse/shallow bay product, as there is currently 1,067,174 SF available which represents a vacancy rate of 15%. Flex product currently stands at a vacancy of 29% with 336,150 SF available. Tenant transactions occurring during 2011 include Niagara Conservation purchasing and occupying a 100,423 SF warehouse/distribution center located at 4200 Diplomacy Road, Suncom Holdings purchasing and occupying a 179,407 warehouse/distribution center located at 4250 Cambridge Road and Riex Company leasing 59,889 SF located at 4300 Diplomacy Road. Rental rates currently stand near all-time lows, however, they have begun to stabilize over the past couple of quarters. With the high vacancy among the flex product, aggressive rents and increased concessions are being offered to entice tenants and drive occupancy. Leasing activity is expected to remain strong during the remainder of 2011 and into 2012 as job growth in Dallas/Fort Worth is anticipated to outpace forecasts for the rest of the nation. Even with the increased leasing activity, rent growth in not anticipated until 2013.