2001 Lead Lease Coming Soon, Trailing 375,266-SF Pact

MESQUITE, TX-Georgia-Pacific’s buyout last year of an AllianceTexas tenant causes a shift within the Hillwood portfolio, with the Atlanta-based operation signing for 375,226 sf in an under-construction building at Skyline Business Park in Mesquite. The lease marks the second largest in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex this year, but a Hillwood insider says the biggest is yet to come.

Closely guarded talks for what will prove to the year’s largest signing could close this week, the Hillwood insider tells GlobeSt.com. The source won’t say which Hillwood project or give an inkling as to who the tenant might be, but is confident that the DFW-based developer will walk away King of the Hill with the region’s top two transactions for 2001. To date, Hillwood has signed more than 2.5 million sf of leases, representing five of the seven largest industrial deals cut around the metroplex.

Georgia-Pacific says it needs to shift operations east of Dallas. The Skyline 1 industrial facility, located at 951 Town East Blvd., will deliver in January 2002. Cushman & Wakefield Inc.’s Dan Cook in Dallas and Ray Stache in Atlanta handled negotiations for the tenant. Larry Leon and Ned Washburn, both of CB Richard Ellis in Dallas, represented Hillwood.

The Fortune 100 company will relocate from 375,000 sf in Alliance Gateway 4, which it inherited in the 2000 takeover of Fort James. The acquired company has maintained a DFW distribution center in AllianceTexas since 1996 via a deal with James River, which merged with Fort Howard in 1997 and formed Fort James.

“This deal is a prime example of why we established our Hillwood Investment Properties division to develop commercial space in Dallas-Ft. Worth outside of our AllianceTexas project,” Hillwood CEO Rick Patterson says in a prepared statement.

Skyline 1 is the fourth building to come out of the ground in the 112-acre business park, which has added 1.6 million sf in the past year to the market. Tal Hicks, president of Hillwood Investment Properties, says the park “has proven to be a tremendous site because of its location and the tremendous commitment by the City of Mesquite to attract quality economic development projects.” The signing also drives the completion of Chase Road and Skyline Drive extension in a project to link the entire complex, say officials.