Logistics Property Co. Plans 1 MSF Industrial Park

Mark Glagola, Senior Vice President, Logistics Property Co. LLC. Image courtesy of Logistics Property Co. LLC

A 149-acre site in New Castle County, Del., long planned for an industrial park, will soon undergo a highly anticipated transformation now that Logistics Property Co. LLC has acquired the project site from D2 Organization. LPC will develop First State Logistics, an approximately 1.1 million-square-foot, state-of-the-art logistics campus, on the sprawling acreage in the metropolitan Wilmington, Del., area.

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Sited off I-95 roughly 15 miles southwest of downtown Wilmington, First Logistics will take shape on a prime location offering easy access to Southern New Jersey and Philadelphia, as well as the Baltimore-Washington corridor. Ultimately, the project will feature three 40-foot clear facilities with a total of 60,000 square feet of office space, as well as substantial car and trailer parking.

LPC isn’t waiting for a prelease to get started; First Logistics is a speculative development that will be built in phases. “There is strong demand based on high consumer demographics in the I-95 corridor of the Northeast,” Mark Glagola, senior vice president with Logistics Property Co. LLC, told Commercial Property Executive.

The initial phase of First Logistics will consist of Buildings 1 and 2, which will deliver a total of 702,600 square feet. Phase II, featuring the 385,000-square-foot Building 3, will commence following the completion of Phase I.

Outdated options

The Greater Wilmington area is hungry for logistics product. Asked to describe the current state of the local industrial market, Glagola had just two words: “Extremely limited.” However, the market’s challenges extend beyond just lack of supply; it suffers from a dearth of modern accommodations.

According to a third quarter 2021 report by Newmark, in New Castle County, there is a “limited number of big-box warehouse and distribution options currently in the market, as most of the available space is smaller, older buildings.”

First State Logistics, New Castle County, master site plan. Image courtesy of Logistics Property Co. LLC

Previous owners of the First State site have been trying to address the area’s inadequate industrial inventory for quite some time. In 2009, multinational manufacturing company W.L. Gore and Associates had secured approval for a major land development plan that included more than 1.6 million square feet of office, manufacturing and warehouse space for its headquarters. That endeavor never got off the ground. D2 later acquired the land and in early 2021, the company submitted a re-subdivision plan to New Castle County, proposing nearly 1.1 million square feet of office, manufacturing and warehouse space at a cost of $92 million.

Now, LPC has the baton and plans to bring First State to fruition. The company has tapped CBRE to handle leasing for the project. And LPC’s next big move will be the selection of a general contractor for the Bernardon-designed development.