PLAINFIELD, IN-Siemens Healthcare USA has leased most of a 493,500-sf new distribution building here that was built by Republic Property Co. The building is one of two planned for the Plainfield Distribution Center campus, at State Road 267 and Stafford Road, which will total about one million sf when complete.
Siemens, a diagnostic solutions firm, took 320,070 sf out of Building 100. Chip Barnes and Matt Dickerson represented the owner, while Tom Cooler, Ryan Beesley and Paul Novello with CB Richard Ellis represented the tenant.
Dickerson tells GlobeSt.com that his firm is trying to lease the remaining 170,000 sf of Building 100, and is looking for tenants for a second planned facility. The lease rate for both buildings is around $3.20 per sf, he says. ?The second spec facility, Building 200, will be 450,000 sf, similar to the first building with 36-foot-clear ceilings and cross docks. Construction should start in March, and it should be done in five months,? he says.
He says the local market has been somewhat immune to the economic downturn, as Plainfield is in demand for companies seeking a well-positioned distribution center. ?On average, we?ve had about 3.5 million sf of positive absorption per year for the past five-to-six years. This year will be closer to five million sf, it?s going to be a real banner year ? but we needed that type of year, we had about seven million sf of spec come online in 2007. For a few quarters, we had vacancy near 20%. All of a sudden, everyone out there was yelling, ?Hey, lease our buildings!??
He says in 2008, the construction starts slowed considerably, leading to about one million sf of spec building opened this year. Now, vacancy is below 10% for class A bulk space, Dickerson says.