CRG Lands Full-Building Tenant Near Columbus

Omega Morgan, a specialist in moving heavy rigging and machinery, has inked a 250,020-square-foot lease for the entire Building D of The Cubes at Etna, a master-planned industrial park in Etna Township, Ohio, in the metro Columbus market.

The landlord, CRG, developed the spec building and completed it less than a year ago. Contegra Construction served as general contractor, while Lamar Johnson Collaborative was the architect.

Omega Morgan leased the facility as part of its ongoing expansion in the region. The company operates across much of the U.S. and Canada, and plans to utilize the building for distribution services across the Ohio Valley region.

Joe Kimener of CBRE represented CRG in the lease and Nick Tomasone of JLL negotiated on behalf of the tenant.

Part of a master-planned industrial campus

Building D has a rear-load design with 36-foot clear heights, 32 fully equipped dock positions (expandable to 50), a 60-foot speed bay and 62 trailer stalls. The facility is adjacent to the interchange of Interstate 70 and Ohio Highway 310, providing immediate access to major transportation routes.

The facility is the third development at The Cubes at Etna. The industrial campus occupies 305 acres of former farmland that CRG and its capital partner, LXP Industrial Trust, acquired in 2018. The property received a 15-year, 100 percent tax abatement.

The master-planned park also includes a 1.2 million-square-foot build-to-suit fulfillment center for retailer Kohl’s, that came online in 2020. A separate 1.1 million-square-foot speculative distribution facility, known as Building E, was completed in late 2022 and leased to a manufacturing tenant for a new distribution center.

All together, including the buildings at The Cubes at Etna, CRG has developed more than 53 million square feet of industrial projects nationwide. The Cubes is the company’s national industrial development platform.

Columbus industrial supply exceeds demand

Spec industrial deliveries in Greater Columbus in the third quarter of 2024 upped the market’s vacancy by 60 basis points, with overall vacancy now at 7 percent, according to CBRE data. However, buildings under 100,000 square feet were less available for lease, marking a 2 percent vacancy rate.

Vacancies were up even though construction activity dropped in Q3, with four industrial developments adding 2 million square feet to the market, CBRE reports. The completed square footage was down by 22 percent quarter-over-quarter and 50.4 percent year-over-year.

Besides Building D at The Cubes at Etna, other developments in greater Columbus have been fully leased recently, including Building A at Canal Pointe Industrial Park, Building 1 at Silicon Heartland Innovation Park, and 885 Stelzer Road. Also, 1050 Gateway Drive is 82 percent leased.