MRP Industrial Breaks Ground on Massive Project in Maryland

By Keith Loria, Contributing Editor

Perryman, Md.—MRP Industrial has acquired and begun construction on Eastgate 95 Industrial Park, a 243-acre project that will see three buildings of up to 2.5 million square feet in Perryman, Harford County, Md., approximately 30 miles north of Baltimore along the Interstate 95 corridor.

Seagate 95 Industrial Park

“Eastgate has strong appeal in that it is master-planned with the flexibility to accommodate a wide range of requirements, spanning from 500,000- to over 1,500,000-square-feet, and with the ability to be delivered in less than 10 months,” D. Reid Townsend, MRP Industrial’s principal, told Commercial Property Executive. “Eastgate aligns seamlessly with MRP Industrial’s strategy of establishing joint ventures with major institutional capital partners for ground-up development of Class A bulk industrial properties in core industrial markets across the Northeastern US.”

Phase I includes speculative development of 1100 Woodley Road, a 656,800-square-foot, Class A cross-dock distribution center scheduled for delivery in fall 2017 along with a two-mile extension of Woodley Road and associated public utilities. Future phases include development of 1500 Woodley Road, a 1,027,500-square-foot cross dock distribution center and 1000 Woodley Road, a 624,500-square-foot facility.

The campus-style setting will include more than 100 acres of landscaped area with 37 acres of new tree plantings under the Maryland Forest Conservation Act.

“Within the marketplace, we saw a scarcity of existing product and shovel-ready bulk industrial sites along the I-95 corridor from Northern Virginia through Central New Jersey,” Townsend said. “At the same time, we also saw an increase in demand for them, with leases completed in the Greater Baltimore industrial market in Q4 ’16, including 1.3 million square feet to Under Armour, 570,000 square feet to XPO Logistics and 1 million square feet to Amazon. Eastgate is able to satisfy this need by providing a wide range of space options, and offers the only available Class A blocks of space over 350,000 square feet in a 35-mile radius.”

Eastgate is located on one of the last industrially zoned properties in Harford County, Md., and is supported by significant tax benefits in the Aberdeen/Havre de Grace Enterprise Zone. Its corporate neighbors have a significant presence in the submarket, including Amazon, Proctor & Gamble, Clorox, Pier 1 Imports, Saks Fifth Avenue, McCormick, Sephora, Electrolux, Rite Aid and XPO Logistics.

“The location and neighborhood of Eastgate play a significant role in its appeal,” Townsend said. “Eastgate also offers direct access to I-95—the backbone connecting the East Coast’s largest metropolitan areas—allowing future tenants the ability to serve over 120 million people within a single day’s drive.”

The master plan was developed in conjunction with Frederick Ward Associates, while Ware Malcomb will serve as the architect for the project and the Conlan Company will serve as the general contractor.