TriStar Properties launches two more spec buildings in Edwardsville

Illinois Business Journal Report
    EDWARDSVILLE — Gateway Commerce Center’s contribution to regional employment will get a big boost with plans to build two more spec buildings in the eastern half of the distribution complex.
    TriStar Properties has begun development of two mega-cube speculative distribution buildings initially totaling 1.13 million square feet at the 2,300-acre logistics and bulk distribution park. The buildings will be located in the Edwardsville section of the park, which also falls into part of Pontoon Beach.
    Teaming with TriStar to fund the $49 million venture is PCCP, LLC a national real estate finance and investment management company.
    Based on statistical benchmarks, when leased the buildings are projected to produce a minimum of 500 new jobs said TriStar President Michael Towerman. Between 5,000 and 5,500 now work there.
    Both new centers are being built east of Illinois 255 where Tri-Star just wrapped construction of  the first building on that side of the highway and is actively negotiating with tenants. One of the new buildings is being built just east of the new building. The other is being built just to the north.
    One of the new buildings is called Gateway East 618. It is being built on a 53-acre site and will span 618,450 square feet with 36-foot clear-height ceilings. The cross-docked facility will be 570 feet deep with 68 dock doors and two drive-in doors.
    The other tilt-up concrete building, Gateway East 513, will host 513,760 square feet on a 46-acre site and be topped by a 32-foot clear height ceiling. Also cross-docked, the building will be 520 feet deep with 58 dock doors and two drive-in doors. Each building is sited to be expandable to more than 1,000,000 square feet.
    According to Ed Lampitt, managing director of the St. Louis office of Cushman Wakefield, the exclusive leasing agent for the Gateway venture, said the 618 building is scheduled to be available for occupancy in late summer, 2016 with the 513 building tenant-ready later in the fall.
    “Gateway Commerce Center is widely acknowledged as one of the leading distribution parks in the Midwest. With 15 bulk buildings containing nearly 11 million square feet under roof, it is a development in which the St. Louis region can take great pride,” said Lampitt. “Our rationale in beginning a pair of buildings simultaneously is to cut a broad swath in the marketplace. We want to offer prospective national tenants a choice – and an excellent match – in their pursuit of highly efficient and expandable bulk space configurations.”
    TriStar  project team for the buildings include Contegra Construction, general contractor; Gray Design Group, architect; and Stock & Associates Consulting Engineers, Inc.; civil engineer.
    Gateway East 618 and Gateway East 513 will be the third and fourth distribution facilities jointly developed by TriStar and PCCP at Gateway in the past two years.
    In 2014, the duo teamed to develop a 673,137-square-foot distribution center occupied in May, 2015 by Florida-based third-party logistics provider Saddle Creek Corp. The $26 million structure was the first speculative industrial building constructed in St. Louis since 2007.
    The pair then partnered to complete the $36 million, 717,060-square-foot center on a 56-acre site at Gateway East.
    In addition to Saddle Creek, Gateway tenants include Dial Corp., GENCO ATC, The Hershey Company, Ozburn-Hessey Logistics, Proctor & Gamble, Save-A-Lot, Schneider National, Unilever, USF Logistics, Walgreens and Yazaki of North America, and others.
    Institutions with holdings in Gateway include Goldrich & Kest Industries, J.P. Morgan & Co., Multi-Employer Property Trust, Prologis Real Estate Investment Trust, UBS Realty Investors (the U.S. subsidiary of Union Bank of Switzerland) and USAA.
    TriStar Properties is a nationally recognized real estate development and investment company with the highest volume of currently active projects in metropolitan St. Louis.
    PCCP, LLC is a real estate finance and investment management company that focuses on commercial real estate debt and equity investments. With offices in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, it has approximately $6 billion in assets under management on behalf of institutional investors.