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Incentives, industrial leasing strategy start paying off for Hunt Midwest

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HMBC Logistics II - Hunt Midwest Business Center

Incentives, industrial leasing strategy start paying off for Hunt Midwest
Rob Roberts – Kansas City Business Journal

Hunt Midwest officials are crediting incentives and a focus on smaller industrial tenants for strong leasing activity at the company’s Logistics I and II buildings in the Hunt Midwest Business Center, a 2,500-acre development at Interstate 435 and Parvin Road in Kansas City.

The following new HMBC tenants recently qualified for 25-year, 100 percent property tax abatements through an Enhanced Enterprise Zone that the business center is located within:

  • American Tire Distributors Inc. opened a 108,860-square-foot regional warehouse and distribution center in HMBC Logistics II, a 200,000-square-foot, multitenant warehouse and distribution facility.
  • Orbis Corp. opened a 40,777-square-foot service center for its Reusable Packaging Management division in HMBC Logistics II. The service center focuses on inventory management and cleaning of plastic reusable packaging used in the food, beverage and consumer goods supply chain.
  • Spartan Motors Inc. expanded its cargo van and fleet upfit assembly operation in HMBC Logistics I to 63,169 square feet. The expansion comes less than a year after Spartan launched its all-new service line in HMBC Logistics I, which also is a 200,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility.
  • A leading supplier to the e-commerce industry will launch a 37,888-square-foot manufacturing and fulfillment center in April at HMBC Logistics I, its first Midwest location.

“These leases validate Hunt Midwest’s decision to invest in multitenant facilities geared to tenants ranging from 40,000 square feet to over 100,000 square feet,” Hunt Midwest CEO Ora Reynolds said in a release. “Phase 5 of the Hunt Midwest Business Center includes a third 200,000-square-foot multitenant building along with room for additional buildings ranging from 450,000 to 1.2 million square feet. As businesses grow, we will have the inventory to meet their growing demands within HMBC.”

The abatements for qualified companies available through the Enhanced Enterprise Zone are based on investment and job creation.

“The EEZ is a game-changer for companies looking to locate in HMBC,” Mike Bell, Hunt Midwest’s vice president of commercial real estate, said in the release. “With the tax incentives offered, companies are benefiting greatly from substantial savings.”

With immediate proximity to FedEx and UPS hubs and a location that’s minutes from interstates 35, 29 and 70, HMBC also offers companies the ability to reach 85 percent of the U.S. market within two days while benefiting from one of the Midwest’s strongest labor pools.

“Hunt Midwest offers what we term the ‘three Ls’ of industrial real estate: location, logistics and labor,” Bell said in the release. “We are seeing a cluster effect of automotive, 3PL and e-commerce companies taking advantage of HMBC’s central location, strong workforce and direct access to public transportation.”

HMBC ultimately will include an additional 8 million square feet of master-planned, Class A warehouse and distribution space in future phases.

Serving as Hunt Midwest’s partner in the development is HSA Commercial Real Estate, a full-service firm specializing in office, industrial, retail and health care real estate leasing, management, marketing, development and financing. Besides developing and acquiring more than 50 million square feet of commercial real estate nationwide with a total value in excess of $2.5 billion, HSA Commercial Real Estate has represented owners and tenants in more than 10,000 transactions and manages a property portfolio in excess of 16 million square feet.

Another firm wheels into Hunt Midwest’s Automotive Alley

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Ford PSW-Approved industrial space

Another firm wheels into Hunt Midwest’s Automotive Alley
Rob Roberts – Kansas City Business Journal

Hunt Midwest has landed its 14th auto industry-related tenant at Automotive Alley, a combination of above- and below-ground real estate near the junction of Missouri Highway 210 and Interstate 435 in Kansas City.

Dejana Truck & Utility Equipment, a New York-based subsidiary of Douglas Dynamics Inc. (NYSE: PLOW), has leased 90,000 square feet in SubTropolis for a new Ford Transit and Ford F-150 upfitting operation. The firm also will lease an additional 2 acres for vehicle staging, Hunt Midwest reported.

Hunt Midwest’s Automotive Alley includes space in SubTropolis, the world’s largest subterranean business complex, and the roughly 700-acre Hunt Midwest Business Center surface development above it.

“Dejana is the 14th auto company to choose Automotive Alley for upfitting, distribution or coordination operations in the past six years,” Mike Bell, Hunt Midwest vice president of commercial development, said in a release. “This cluster effect of automotive companies located within SubTropolis and the Hunt Midwest Business Center allows companies like Dejana to be more productive and cost competitive, which is the essence of Automotive Alley.”

Dejana manufactures van partitions, racking systems and hauling systems for after-market installation on commercial vans and trucks. The company chose SubTropolis because of its location just south of Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo and the availability of space for staging vehicles before delivery, Andrew Dejana, president of Dejana Truck & Utility Equipment, said in a release.

“Being able to quickly move vehicles from Ford’s plant to our upfitting operation, combined with the ability to stage those vehicles nearby, is an unbeatable value proposition in our business,” Dejana said in the release. “SubTropolis was the logical choice for Dejana as we work to expand our reach and improve our ability to serve customers in the energy, utility and telecommunications industries. We look forward to continuing the great partnership we have with Ford, and a presence in the Kansas City market will strengthen our position with the fleet and ship-through business.”

Additional upfitters and suppliers with locations in Automotive Alley include AER Manufacturing, Adrian Steel, Auto Truck Group, Clore Automotive, Ground Effects, Grupo Antolin, Knapheide Manufacturing Co., Masterack LLC, CVP Group LLC, Midway Ford, Reading Truck Body LLC, Spartan Motors and XPO Logistics. Those companies, combined with Ford’s North American Vehicle Logistics Outbound Shipping facility, have more than 10,000 spaces for vehicle staging in Automotive Alley.

Auto, e-commerce demand fuel Hunt Midwest Business Center expansion

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Ora Reynolds and Mike Bell in front of HMBC Logisitcs I

Auto, e-commerce demand fuel Hunt Midwest Business Center expansion
Rob Roberts – Kansas City Business Journal

By the time Hunt Midwest completes HMBC Logistics I next month, the new 200,000-square-foot Class A industrial building in the Hunt Midwest Business Center may well be leased up, said Ora Reynolds, the Kansas City-based development firm’s CEO.

Hunt Midwest is currently in the final stages of negotiations with three tenants that would fill the building, which was started last year on a speculative basis, meaning before any tenants were signed.

Once that happens, Reynolds said, Hunt Midwest will start on one of the other two 200,000-square-foot specs planned for adjacent sites in the surface business park located near Parvin Road and Interstate 435 in Clay County — just a mile and a half away from the Ford Kansas City Assembly Plant and right above the world’s largest underground business park, Hunt Midwest’s SubTropolis.

According to Reynolds, the trio of 200,000-square-feet buildings is designed to fill a niche in the market for tenants needing 40,000 to 50,000 square feet of Class A industrial space with features such as 32-foot clear height, multiple dock doors (HMBC Logistics I’s current 20 doors can be tripled to meet tenant demand) and 60-foot deep bays that allow indoor staging for 53-foot trailers. Read more…

Ford is keeping the line moving in Kansas City.

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Ford PSW-Approved industrial space

Ford is keeping the line moving in Kansas City.
Ryan Tompkins – Manager of Sales & Leasing

When people think about Kansas City, chances are they think about barbecue, jazz, the Kansas City Chiefs and of course, our World Series-winning Royals.

What they may not realize is that along Kansas City’s I-35 Northland corridor, Ford has managed to cover all the bases by putting a winning team together to support production and customization of its two Kansas City-made vehicles, the top-selling Ford F-150 and the Ford Transit, the top-selling commercial van.

It all begins at Ford’s massive Claycomo Assembly Plant and it ends just a few miles south at Hunt Midwest’s Automotive Alley, a sprawling above- and below-ground commercial business park that is home to Ford’s 29-acre North American Vehicle Logistics Outbound Shipping facility, or NAVLOS.

After Ford F-150s and Transit commercial vans roll off the assembly line at Claycomo, they’re transported a couple of miles to the NAVLOS facility in Automotive Alley for staging. The vehicles are then transferred to one of 10 Ford approved upfitters located within Automotive Alley, which includes both the Hunt Midwest Business Center (HMBC) and SubTropolis, the world’s largest underground business complex.

Since 2012, Automotive Alley has seen tremendous growth in its fleet of upfitters, with companies like Adrian Steel, CASECO, Ground Effects, Knapheide, Sortimo and Leggett & Platt adding customizable cargo management solutions. Other auto industry related companies within Automotive Alley include distributors AER Manufacturing, Clore Automotive, Grupo Antolin and Midway Ford, as well as 3PL provider XPO Logistics. And more upfitters, suppliers and related companies are looking at Automotive Alley every day.

With the Kansas City Claycomo plant helping lead the way for Ford’s best year ever, Hunt Midwest is developing speculative industrial space, both below (SubTropolis) and above (HMBC) ground, to accommodate future growth companies looking for a centrally located, affordable place to do business near Ford’s largest assembly plant.

At Hunt Midwest, we’re proud to be a part of Ford’s winning Kansas City team, and we look forward to adding more players in 2016 and beyond.

Ryan Tompkins is manager of sales and leasing for Hunt Midwest. In March he will represent Hunt Midwest and Automotive Alley at the NTEA Work Truck Show. Reach Ryan at rtompkins@huntmidwest.com.