GLASGOW – The D2 Organization has sold its Glasgow Commons project to Chicago-based distribution developer Logistics Property Company, which will now develop a more than 1 million-square-foot logistics park known as First State Logistics.
The terms of the deal announced Oct. 27 were not immediately disclosed.
The project is sited at 149 acres near the intersection of Old Cooch’s Bridge Road and Route 896 near Glasgow High School and the Four Seasons shopping center. Under LPC’s plan, the logistics park will incorporate three, 40-foot clear, Class A modern logistics facilities totaling 1.08 million square feet and 60,000 square feet of office space.
“We are thrilled to be in the greater Wilmington market – a subset of the rapidly growing Interstate 95 market from Washington/Baltimore to Philadelphia and New Jersey,” said Mark Glagola, senior vice president and Northeast market leader at LPC, in a statement announcing the deal.
D2, a real estate development and investment firm headquartered in Philadelphia with a satellite office in Claymont, is best known in Delaware for its development of the Delaware River Works site near the state border with Marcus Hook, Pa.
For its latest project though, D2 had turned its sights to an area that Newark-based W. L. Gore envisioned for 1.6 million square feet of offices, manufacturing, and warehousing as a new headquarters more than a decade ago. The plan never materialized, and the land has only been farmed since. Gore reached a sale agreement with D2 for the site, pending approval of the plans, and D2 had proposed investing $92 million into the development. In October, LPC acquired the land in a $17.7 million deal with Gore, according to county land records.
The property’s location near the existing Pencader Corporate Center and Glasgow Business Community, along Route 896, 1.5 miles south of Interstate 95, positions it well to attract economic development opportunities. D2 submitted its proposal under the county’s Jobs Now program, a review process that prioritizes development projects that bring new or expanded job opportunities to New Castle County. It received approval from the county’s Historic Review Board last spring and now has conditional zoning and planning approvals in hand.
The state Transportation Infrastructure Investment Fund (TIIF) Council approved the project for a nearly $4.5 million grant to fund turn lane improvements off Route 896 at Old Cooch’s Bridge Road and GBC Drive as well as road widening on the smaller roads to accommodate additional traffic at the site.
The proposed site plan for three buildings is to be developed over two phases. Phase I, comprising two buildings totaling 702,600 square feet, will be developed on a speculative basis. Phase II, comprising a third building totaling 385,000 square feet, will follow.
CBRE is leasing the property and a general contractor will be selected soon.
“Distribution in Delaware is on the rise, as it features amazing access to millions of rooftops within a short two-hour drive, and Middletown, in particular, is on the radar for most major distribution facility requirements today,” Paul Touhey, senior vice president at CBRE, said in a statement. “For companies that require access to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., First State Logistics is going to be a very nice option.”
First State Logistics is among a rush of distribution and logistics space being developed in New Castle County, including more than 5 million square feet of warehousing already leased or being eyed by e-commerce giant Amazon.
The Glasgow project would mark the arrival of LPC to Delaware, which primarily has developed projects in Texas and near Chicago, but does have a logistics park in Mount Pocono, Pa. While most distribution projects in Delaware are developed by state or Philadelphia-based firms, a growing number of national firms are taking interest in the First State. Leading that pack is Nevada-based Dermody Properties, which developed the massive 3.7 million-square-foot Boxwood plant for Amazon and is now eyeing 1 million more square feet of space near Middletown, and St. Louis-based Community Development Company, which is redeveloping a large swath of Claymont.
