Former Sun Products Facility Gets New Lease on Life

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

Construction crews are hard at work at the former Sun Products site.

Chesapeake Real Estate Group (CREG) and its partner, San Antonio-based USAA Real Estate Co., have finally started demolition activities at the site of the former Sun Products facility, nearly five months after purchasing the asset. The two partners plan to redevelop and renovate the property, in order to attract companies from the e-commerce industry.

Only a portion of the 47-acre site at 5300 Holabird Ave. will be demolished. CREG will take down five separate buildings, comprising more than 600,000 square feet of space, and replace them with two new facilities, offering a total of 550,000 square feet of warehouse and distribution space.

The construction of the two new buildings is included in phases II and III of the project. Phase I calls for the renovation of an existing 500,000-square-foot distribution building, which will be equipped with state-of-the-art features, such as new lighting, head, loading and a new roof. During Phase II, the developer will build a new Class A single-story cross-dock industrial and warehouse building with about 400,000 square feet of space, while in Phase III CREG will construct a second and smaller Class A industrial and warehouse building, offering only about 100,000 square feet of space.

CREG expects to finish the demolition phase by December 2015, and building the new facilities shortly after.

“Since acquiring this parcel and existing buildings in April, our team has generated a tremendous amount of interest from end-users that are attracted to this one-of-a-kind site with directly proximity to major transportation axes,” Jim Lighthizer, founder and owner of CREG, explained in a statement. “We are focused on executing our development plan and making this project site-ready as quickly as possible to respond to the e-commerce and warehouse/manufacturing demand.”

The cost of the project was not disclosed. The developers hope to finish it by summer 2016.

Image via Chesapeake Real Estate Group