Ohio-Based Manufacturer Selects Great Southwest for Hub

GRAND PRAIRIE, TEXAS... Ohio-based Niles Building Products Co. has leased 12,400 sf in the Upper Great Southwest Industrial District as its operations base for Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and the Gulf Coast markets. An early January occupancy is planned for 609 Avenue R, a 60,910-square-foot building owned by DCT Industrial Trust and leased by Bradford Commercial Real Estate Services. "It was a combination of the location in the Upper Great Southwest, proximity to Highway 360 and the amount of dock coverage with three doors and a ramp," says Michael W. Spain, senior vice president and managing partner of Dallas-based Bradford. "It suits a distribution user really well." He and Jim Ferris, a Bradford vice president, represented the Denver-based landlord. Negotiations went full circle in less than two months, with Niles Building Products signing a long-term lease for a structure with expansion potential. Shannon Bravomalo of Star Commercial Realty in Arlington represented the region's newest tenant, a leading manufacturer of expanded metal accessories for stucco, plaster, drywall and veneer plaster applications. The new lease has jump-started a make-ready build-out for the 18,000-sf balance of the shallow-bay building. When it's done, the vacancy will have 1,000 sf of spec office space and seven dock doors. "We want to have it ready for somebody who needs it immediately," Spain says. "There is not a lot of competing shallow-bay product in the Great Southwest with the amount of doors we have for a vacancy of this size."