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Massive logistics hub planned in Grand Prairie as D-FW industrial real estate market steams ahead

Grand Prairie will be home to a 401,577-square-foot logistics center by the beginning of 2019, one of many new commercial developments popping up in the western Dallas suburb.

The Oakdale Logistics Center will feature 75 docks and 185 truck courts. California-based CT Realty and Dallas-based Port Logistics Realty acquired the land in 2017 and broke ground on the construction this week.

The companies expect construction to be completed on the single-tenant facility by the first quarter of 2019.

It’s not their first partnership in the area, either — CT and PLR built another industrial building in Grand Prairie last year.

They’re also in the midst of developing a multi-phase 9 million-square-foot logistics park in Wilmer, 10 miles south of downtown, in partnership with Mitsubishi Corp.-owned Diamond Realty Investments. Once done, it will be one of the largest such parks in the country. The first two phases were completed in 2017.

With tight supply and skyrocketing demand, industrial and logistics real estate in Dallas has been on a tear this year.

Only 2.3 million square feet was added to the market in the first quarter of 2018, according to CBRE, and while net absorption remained positive well through the seventh consecutive year, it has begun to shrink, down to 3.9 million square feet by the end of March.

Multi-million square-foot logistics hubs, data centers, shipping facilities and major warehouses are popping up across the southern and western portions of the metroplex, driven by the rise of e-commerce and large corporate relocations to Dallas-Fort Worth.

While the logistics submarket in the southwestern part of the metroplex, which includes this Grand Prairie development, has in the past struggled to keep pace with other more commercially active industrial markets in the area, it’s now quite popular. In 2016, it had the most active construction of any submarket in the region, and while the rate of fresh supply has cooled, it still has the greatest amount of net absorption in D-FW, with just under 1.2 million square feet.

“We are excited to have found such an ideal site for the development of this Class A distribution facility in the absolute heart of Metroplex, where land availability has become so scarce,” said Rob Huthnance, president of PLR, in a statement.