Duck Creek Business Campus plans ahead with second spec building

KRM Development Corp. is reportedly looking to start the planning process for a second speculative building at Duck Creek Business Campus. The first building, seen here, was finished in early July. | PHOTO BY KATIE TABELING

SMYRNA — Less than a month after finishing the first speculative building in the long-awaited Duck Creek Business Campus, developers are now exploring plans to start its second building on the site.

Smyrna Senior Planner Jeremy Rothwell announced that KRM Development Corp. has submitted an early proposal for another 133,000-square-foot spec building in the 210-acre business campus that sits off U.S. Route 13. KRM representatives met with town officials for a pre-application meeting to discuss the early stages of development.

“It would construct another flex building, similar to what’s already out there, that they’re looking to construct sometime in the late fall or winter,” Rothwell said during Wednesday’s Smyrna Economic Development Committee meeting. “The project is going to be moving forward in the next couple of months.”

KRM representatives confirmed the company was in the preliminary stages for its second flex building, but did not specify a timeframe for construction. The Duck Creek Business Campus had made such an early big splash, that the development firm hinted it would move ahead on the second phase.

“The second build is conceptual at this point. But the strategy is to make sure that we have options to offer for lease,” KRM Development Corp. Senior Vice President Jesse Parks told the Delaware Business Times on Wednesday. “We just want to be prepared to move this forward when we’re ready.”

After 17 years of land acquisition and laying infrastructure, KRM finished the first building in the Duck Creek Business Campus on July 7. The first building measures 70,000 square feet with 20 dock doors and seven drive-ins.

KRM signed on with international commercial real estate broker JLL in late July to start marketing the business campus. Promotional materials highlight the industrial campus’s proximity to Philadelphia, New York City and Washington D.C.

While JLL has worked with KRM to land tenants at its properties in Kent Island and Chestertown, Md., Duck Creek Business Campus will be the first time the developer is looking at overseas prospects.

Based on the land configuration, the Duck Creek Business Campus may have a final footprint of 1 million to 1.5 million square feet.