Clarion, Seefried Break Ground on Tampa-Area Project

Clarion Partners and Seefried Industrial Properties have started construction on the first phase of Park 4 Logistics Center, a four-building, 860,120-square-foot Class A logistics park in Plant City, Fla. Avison Young will handle leasing for the campus.

Clarion purchased the 72-acre property, at Park Road and North Frontage Road off of I-4, in 2023 and partnered with Seefried to develop the project in two phases. Phase one will deliver in the fourth quarter of this year and will comprise Building 100, of 218,960 square feet, and Building 200, of 247,520 square feet.

The schedule for phase two, of Building 300 (169,000 square feet) and Building 400 (224,640 square feet), has yet to be determined.

The site is immediately off of Exit 22 of I-4, just 16 minutes to I-75 in Tampa.

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In a prepared statement, Clay Witherspoon, principal & managing director of Avison Young’s Tampa operations, said that most of the industrial inventory that has come to market over the past three years has focused on 100,000- to 500,000-square-foot users, causing large spaces to sit vacant for longer periods of time. She added that Park 4 Logistics Center aims to meet the demand of businesses seeking spaces between 40,000 and 75,000 square feet.

Clarion Partners owns more than 5.5 million square feet of stabilized industrial space in Central Florida and has another 4.75 million square feet in the development pipeline.

Size matters

In the second half of 2023, tenant demand in the Tampa Bay industrial market changed quickly, according to Avison Young. Deals in the 100,000- to 250,000-square-foot range dropped by nearly two-thirds versus 2022. In 2023, by contrast, the largest share of leasing activity was in spaces from 50,000 to 100,000 square feet, constituting 29 percent of leasing activity.

Meanwhile, asking rates for industrial product in Tampa Bay rose 11 percent year-over-year in 2023 to $10.68 per square foot triple-net, Avison Young reported.  

This past October, Trammell Crow Co. and partner STAG Industrial broke ground on a 300,000-square-foot, two-building project in Gibsonton, Fla. The development is scheduled for delivery in the third quarter.

In December, Hines started construction on the second and final phase of its Tampa Commerce Center, a four-building industrial development. Ball Corp., a provider of sustainable aluminum packaging, had preleased the entire campus in late 2022.

And in early January, Clarion acquired the two-building, 297,254-square-foot Tampa Airport Logistics Center from PCCP LLC for $55.6 million, on behalf of a separate account client. The property is fully leased.