Welcome Group LLC, of Houston, has opened the first phase of its Welcome Venture Park industrial project in Durham, N.C.
Master-planned for an eventual total of about 1.3 million square feet, the park seeks to attract industrial, flex, logistics, GMP and life science tenants. It’s being developed on 160 acres on Old Hamlin Road near Oxford Road and the future North Durham Parkway, providing easy access to Highway 70 and I-85.
Phase 1 consists of four shallow-bay and warehouse buildings whose construction financing was provided by U.S. Bank.
Of the planned nine to 10 buildings, those in Phase 1 (Buildings D through G) are in the park’s southeastern portion and total about 394,800 square feet. They range widely in size, with spaces as small as 4,800 square feet available.
Building D is 103,200 square feet and Building E is 74,400 square feet; both have 40- by 40-foot bays and a 24-foot clear height. Building F is 192,000 square feet, with 50- by 60-foot bays and a 32-foot clear height. Building G is 25,200 square feet, with 30- by 40-foot bays and a 24-foot clear height.
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Welcome Group’s collaborators in the project include RW2 Development Co., of Greensboro, N.C., which is handling entitlements, development and project management. Other local consultants involved in the project are Choate Construction, civil and environmental engineers Withers Ravenel, Maurer Architecture and general contractor Sullivan Eastern.
The campus will eventually feature extensive paved and mulched paths among its amenities. Colliers International is handling leasing.
Raleigh-Durham’s strong industrial demand
After a slow start to the year, activity in the Raleigh-Durham industrial market picked up substantially, as positive net absorption hit its 10th straight quarter, according to a second-quarter report from Colliers.
About two-thirds of the 758,000 square feet delivered in the second quarter was preleased, helping to pull the overall vacancy down to 4.6 percent. And even though the development pipeline has risen to 3.2 million square feet, most of it speculative, Colliers expects ongoing strong demand to tighten vacancy further.
One of those preleased buildings was Scannell Properties’ first building in its master-planned Durham 85 Industrial Park. On completion, the 249,000-square-foot asset was fully leased to Life Science Logistics.