Hunt Southwest Real Estate Development has secured a full-building lease on its recently completed DFW ColdSpot, which is believed to be the first-ever, cold storage facility built on a speculative basis in the nation. The firm inked a long-term lease of its nearly 300,000-square-foot building to Emergent Cold, a fast-growing cold chain solutions company.
Located in the Carter Industrial Park in South Fort Worth at 8200 Will Rogers Blvd., DFW ColdSpot provides prime access to the interchange of two of the country’s most critical north-south and east-west transportation arteries (via Interstate 35W and Interstate 20, respectively) and addresses a growing need in the industrial market.
“We saw a supply and demand imbalance in the market for cold storage space and used our entrepreneurial capital to take advantage of that market inefficiency,” said Hunt Southwest Senior Vice President T. Preston Herold. “We were rewarded with a full building lease and could not have asked for a better partner and tenant in Emergent Cold. They share our same vision as in terms of creating cost savings for their customers through the efficiencies of new construction and advanced refrigeration technologies.”
Emergent Cold will find itself in good company within a thriving industrial park that already has an extensive food industry presence with world-class corporations such as Tyson Foods, Mrs. Baird’s Bread, McLane, the Schwan Food Company, Mother Parker’s Tea & Coffee, Ben E. Keith Foods & Beers, Core-Mark, Save-A-Lot and MillerCoors Brewing.
Emergent Cold recently entered the U.S. market with the acquisition of New Orleans Cold Storage, providing it access to key port facilities in New Orleans, Houston and Charleston. “Our lease of the DFW ColdSpot building aligns with our long-term strategy of building out a broader network of regional distribution and import/export port facilities across North America,” said Neal Rider, CEO of Emergent Cold. “This asset, in a market that continues to outperform other regions of the U.S., will allow us to further enhance our market stronghold in the cold supply chain.”
The lease was brokered by the CBRE Food Facilities group. David Norrie represented Emergent Cold in the transaction, and David Sours and Kevin Kelly represented Hunt Southwest.