(The following story by Sandra Baker appeared on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram website on December 6.)
FORT WORTH — The Amon G. Carter Foundation has entered into a joint venture with Fort Worth-based Rob Riner Cos. to develop about 800 acres of land it owns along the east side of Interstate 35W and south of Interstate 20 in south Fort Worth into a distribution center.
The land is adjacent to the 800-acre Carter Industrial Park, which the foundation began developing in the early 1960s, with Miller Brewery as one of its first tenants. The foundation sold the remaining undeveloped land in the industrial park to Mereken Land & Production Co. about a decade ago.
The first phase of the Carter Distribution Center will include four buildings totaling 3 million square feet on 146 acres. Construction is scheduled to begin in January on the first building, which at 615,000 square feet will be about four times the size of an average SuperWalmart store and cost about $16 million. It will go up east of Oak Grove Road and just north of Joel East Road.
Rob Riner, principal of Rob Riner Cos., said he plans to lease the speculative building to one or two tenants. It should be ready for occupancy in July, he said.
Patrick Harris, executive vice president of investments for the foundation, said there is demand in the market for distribution space and the south Fort Worth location is a prime spot to store goods coming out of Mexico for distribution in Texas and the wider U.S. market.
The foundation has asked the city to grant triple freeport/foreign trade zone status to the distribution center, which would exempt companies from taxes paid on products stored for less than 175 days. It would include county, city and school district taxes.
The foundation has held the land for several decades but entered talks with Riner about two years ago.
“This is potentially a big asset that’s been dormant for a long time,” Harris said. “It’s time to turn it into production.”
A second 806,000-square-foot building is planned to begin construction when the first building is leased, Riner said. Also planned are a 676,300-square-foot building and a 988,000-square-foot building, in the first phase.
Over time, the park could accommodate from 12 million square feet to 15 million square feet of distribution space, Riner said.
“We’re hitting the market at a good time,” Riner said.
All the buildings will have rail service on the Union Pacific Railroad via the short-haul provider, Fort Worth & Western Railroad, he said.