Duke Fills Metro Nashville Distribution Center with Big Lease

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

Duke Realty Corp. has signed B&G Foods, a manufacturer and distributor of branded food and household products, to a new lease for 445,942 square feet in its Park 840 Logistics Center in Lebanon, Tenn., the firm’s Nashville office announced Monday.

Building 653 at Duke Realty’s Park 840 Logistics Center in Lebanon, Tenn.

The lease brings the 653,360-square-foot bulk warehouse known as Building 653, at 14840 Central Pike, to 100 percent leased. Duke declined to disclose the lease’s term.

“B&G Foods is a growing company that needed a modern distribution center with superior highway access,” Chris Brown, senior vice president of Duke’s Southeast Region, said in a statement. The park’s location just off Tennessee 840, he added, “provides ready access to the rest of the country, enabling deliveries in a day’s drive to 50 percent of the country.”

Tom Heslin, director of distribution for B&G Foods, cited the building’s “superior highway access which is critical to our operations.”

Completed in 2006, Building 653 is a cross-docked facility that features 32-foot clear height; 88 dock doors with levelers, bumpers and seals; and four 12- by 14-foot drive-in doors. The remainder of the building is leased to the Nutro Co., a pet-food maker and subsidiary of Mars Inc. based in Franklin, Tenn.

Patrick Brakefield and Michael Augustine with Chas. Hawkins Co., of Nashville, represented B&G Foods in the transaction, and Lonnie Russell represented Duke Realty.

B&G is based in Parsippany, N.J. Some of its better-known brands include Baker’s Joy, Cream of Rice, Cream of Wheat, Emeril’s, Grandma’s Molasses, Joan of Arc, Mrs. Dash, Ortega and Pirate’s Booty.

The master plan for Park 840 Logistics Center indicates that space remains at the site for one additional building of about 478,500 square feet.