CRG Starts Work on 2.3 MSF Industrial Park

The Cubes at Fort Prince. Image courtesy of CRG

CRG has commenced site work for The Cubes at Fort Prince, a signature industrial park in Spartanburg, S.C., that could ultimately grow as large as 2.3 million square feet. CRG will construct the park in phases beginning with Phase I of Building A, an approximately 500,900-square-foot facility expandable to 1.5 million square feet.

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Fort Prince is a project under CRG’s Cubes series, a speculative development brand focusing on a specific set of standards: environmental responsibility; access to major transportation; state-of-the-art design and construction; 3D conceptualization; zero-tolerance safety programs; modern truck docking; ample trailer storage; and workforce availability. Carrying the address of 1460 Fort Prince Blvd. in the burgeoning Fort Prince industrial Corridor, Fort Prince will take shape on a 186-acre that CRG acquired for approximately $8.8 million in August 2021. In addition to Building A, the project will encompass the 500,400-square-foot Building B and the 345,600-square-foot Building C.

Building A, like the other facilities at Fort Prince, will feature enhanced specifications to accommodate the contemporary needs of industrial tenants, including spec office for speed-to-market occupancy requirements. The project is designed from beginning to end to adapt to the predetermined requirements of larger institutional users working on accelerated timelines. CRG is relying on Colliers International for advisory services and to market and lease Fort Prince, as it has with other Cubes projects.

“Our team works very closely with CRG to assess market conditions and plan ahead for multiple development scenarios which can be adjusted before, during and after construction,” Garrett Scott, vice president with Colliers International, told Commercial Property Executive. “This approach allows for maximum flexibility and the ability to meet a wide range of tenant needs at any given point during the development process. Plans are drawn with the intent to work in phases and the ability to expand, adjust or complete at each phase with options for additional parking, spec office and alternate configurations as needed.”

Scott along with colleagues John Montgomery and Brockton Hall comprise the Colliers team that has served as CRG’s exclusive brokerage and advisory partner for more than five years.

The cry goes out for spec development

In the Greenville-Spartanburg industrial market, speculative buildings are likely to be absorbed by the end of the year or even sooner, so new construction is a necessity to meet ongoing demand in 2022, according to a mid-year report by Colliers International. Large institutional users, like those CRG is courting for Fort Prince, are active in the market due to external factors from the pandemic including supply chain inefficiencies and product shortage, Scott explained.

The Cubes at Fort Prince. Image courtesy of CRG

The region’s central Southeast location between major population centers like Charlotte and Atlanta has also proven a great draw for industrial space users.

“Companies expanding their supply chain and distribution networks are focusing in on Greenville-Spartanburg because of the ability to reach most of the U.S. population within a one-day truck drive with less competition, lower pricing than larger cities in the southeast and a readily available workforce,” Scott added. “Institutional users have also taken notice of one of the highest population growth projections in the U.S. and see it as a market with enormous potential. These are just a few factors affecting demand and translating into rising square footage, record absorption and rapid development across the Upstate.”

CRG is on schedule to complete site work for Phase I of Building A by the close of 2021 and open the facility to tenants for move-in by the second quarter of 2022. CRG has another project planned under its signature Cubes brand in South Carolina; the company plans to break ground on The Cubes at Inland Woods, a 467,200-square-foot spec development near the Inland Port in Duncan, in late 2021. The developer is well positioned to launch projects, having closed its second U.S. logistics fund in August 2021, with plans to build $1.5 billion of e-commerce and distribution facilities over the next three years.