GlobeSt.com UPDATE: 508,846-SF Retooling Ready to Start

FORT WORTH-With construction about to ramp up, some details have surfaced about CentrePort Business Park’s newest large tenant. The Toronto, Ontario-based Cott Corp. is ready to dig into a retooling to convert a 508,846-sf warehouse into a manufacturing and distribution site for the Southwest US.

The publicly traded Cott, which has kept a tight lid on the lease, is planning a midsummer occupancy at 15200 Trinity Blvd., Kevin Santaularia, president of Dallas-based Bradford Cos., confirms for GlobeSt.com. The beverage maker inked a 10-year lease for the former Mattel Corp. warehouse, emptied three years ago for a build-to-suit in Fort Worth’s Railhead Industrial Park.

Santaularia says the conversion of warehouse space into manufacturing and distribution will require extensive construction. The building, positioned on 15 acres, has 77 dock doors and a 30-foot clear height. Though he won’t say what it took to hook Cott, the building had been on the market for $2.95 per sf and it’s a safe bet that talks got aggressive with the Trammell Crow Co. team from Tampa and Dallas.

“We did what we believe was a market deal,” Santaularia says, adding the leasing team passed on several requests to divvy the building, owned by the Ohio State Teachers Retirement System, in hopes that a player like Cott would land on its doorstep.

Meanwhile, Bradford marketing director James Ferris says CentrePort, the top draw for the Upper Great Southwest Industrial District, has generated more activity in the past quarter than it has in some time. He’s not crediting Cott, but didn’t dismiss the fact that the top name might draw some followers.

Though it can’t compare in size, Ferris’ latest CentrePort deal did add another new name to the metroplex, Oldham Graphics Supply of Springfield, IL. The firm signed a 19,000-sf, four-year lease for its fourth location and first outside its home state, Ferris says of a tenant that’s just moved into ready-to-go space in CentrePort XI at 4333 Cambridge Dr., a 139,250-sf flex building owned by Schmid -Moulton Parkway LP of Anaheim, CA.