Meet the Major Developers of the International Inland Port of Dallas

From The Allen Group to VanTrust Real Estate, here are 13 developers that are forging the future of the International Inland Port of Dallas.

The Allen Group

San Diego-based Allen Group specializes in rail-served industrial developments, office, retail, and mixed-use properties. The group currently owns about 1,400 acres in the Dallas Logistics Hub. The group developed two buildings that were later sold and is selling land to developers. “I think it’s great that the Grow South initiative exists and that political minds have seen the light and see the advantages of developing land where there was higher unemployment and the availability of a labor force,” Richard Allen, CEO and founder says.

Core5 Industrial Partners

Atlanta-based Core5 is a full-service real estate property company with expertise in development and acquisition of Class A inventory and build-to-suit industrial facilities. It owns a 754,000-square-foot building with 416,000 square feet of that space recently leased to VM Innovations. “I think what really helped them in the location selection was the access to the freeway system being off of Interstates 45 and 20 and also the FedEx Ground that is only about 1.5 to 2 miles away from our property,” John Leinbaugh, vice president, investments, says.

Dermody Dallas

Dermody Properties

Reno, Nevada-based Dermody Properties is involved in industrial real estate investment, development, acquisition, and management. Phase 1 of the LogistiCenter in Dallas is a 626,439-square-foot distribution center expandable to 1.1 million square feet. If Phase 1 isn’t expanded, a Phase 2 building of 447,457 square feet will be developed.

Duke Realty

Duke is an Indianapolis-based publicly traded REIT that owns 16 million square feet of industry properties in Dallas-Fort Worth. Duke has built six buildings in the inland port totaling 4.5 million square feet, with 2 million square feet of that in the last couple years. Its tenants include American Standard, Unilever, Whirlpool, Shippers Warehouse, and WayFair.com.“We can reach about a third of the U.S. population within a one-day truck drive from Dallas-Fort Worth.”—Jeff Thornton, regional senior vice president

[Image courtesy of Hillwood]

Hillwood

Fort Worth-based Hillwood is involved in all facets of industrial development, including land acquisition, master planning, building design, and construction. Developments include The Crossroads Trade Center (DeSoto) with three buildings totaling more than 4.5 million square feet; Commerce 20 Industrial Park with two buildings totaling over 1.1 million square feet; and Commerce 45 with two buildings totaling more than 1.5 million square feet. Hillwood developed the buildings occupied by Georgia-Pacific and Kohls.

[Image courtesy of Hines]

Hines

Houston-based developer Hines is a global real estate investment, development, and management firm with $111 billion in assets under management. The 125-acre development includes a 1.5 million-square- foot logistics park consisting of a 1 million-square-foot center, expandable to 1.5 million square feet. If Phase 1 isn’t expanded, a Phase 2 building of 450,000 square feet will be built. “We’ve seen a trend of regional distribution centers continuing to get bigger and tenant requirements continuing to grow. Part of that is driven by the onslaught of e-commerce-related users but also a reworking of supply chains to be more efficient, ” Director Connor Tamlyn says.

Majestic Realty Co.

Majestic Realty Co. is the largest privately owned industrial developer in the U.S. Majestic has proposed buildings in SouthPoint: a 525,770-square-foot building for a single tenant and a 717,410-square-foot single-tenant building, both in the city of Hutchins.

Prologis Park 20/35

Prologis

Prologis Inc. is an owner, operator, and developer of industrial real estate around the world. Prologis Park 20/35 is located in Lancaster. Prologis has developed several build-to-suits in the inland port.

Prime45 Development

Dallas-based Prime45’s Mike Rader brought the UP intermodal to the inland port and has been a key player in the inland port’s development. Prime45’s 4,000 acres is spread across several parks, including 3,000-acre Prime Pointe rail served by Union Pacific Railroad. “The whole inland port area is seeing a lot of growth, and we still have a lot of land available to be developed.” Mike Rader, President, says.

Ridge Property Trust

Ridge is the industrial development arm of Houston-based Transwestern Development Co. Development includes a build-to-suit for L’Oreal in 2013, and is 100 percent leased to the cosmetics maker. The facility and surrounding park were purchased by State Farm in 2014.

Scannell Properties

The Indianapolis-based real estate development and investment company focuses on build-to-suit and speculative development in the U.S. and Canada, including Sunridge Business Park 2, a 715,520-square-foot spec building. It also did a 450,000-square-foot build-to-suit for Constellation-Biaggi and a 320,000 square-foot build to suit for Makita.

“The product movement from Mexico to the East Coast has made the I-20/I-35 corridor one of the most important logistic centers in the country for most large distributors. We see the IIPOD rivaling the Inland Empire Industrial Market over the next 10-20 years and want to continue to provide first-class facilities to meet the needs of the tidal wave of large companies attracted to the area,” Principal Jack Marks says.

Trammell Crow Co.

Trammell Crow is one of the nation’s leading developers and investors in commercial real estate. Trammell Crow was one of the first and most prolific developers to put up warehouses in the Inland Port—before it had that moniker—with the first building going up in 2001. It has developed over 3 million square feet in the inland port, leasing some buildings and selling others.

VanTrust Real Estate

Kansas City-based VanTrust Real Estate is a full-service real estate development company. DalParc I-20 Logistics development includes Building 1—920,275 square feet— and Building 2—145,800 square feet. Both were completed in 2017. Two more buildings, totaling 1.37 million square feet are planned.

A version of this article appeared in the Dallas-Fort Worth Real Estate Review, Summer 2018.