Aerospace defense giant Lockheed Martin Corporation and fast-growing fan and lighting manufacturer Big Ass Fans have leased full buildings within a recently completed industrial development in Fort Worth.
Lockheed Martin, headquartered in Bethesda, Md., with substantial operations in Fort Worth and Grand Prairie, has taken a 136,165-square-foot building slated for storage and distribution at Fort West Commerce Center.
Kentucky-based Big Ass Fans has planted its central U.S. distribution hub at the industrial project. Big Ass Fans’ 221,444-square-foot full-building lease also includes an office and showroom.
Fort West, developed by Creation, sits among 30 acres, spanning 531,601 square feet across all three of its Class A buildings. It was designed by LGE Design Build, an affiliate of Creation.
The developer initially believed the individual buildings within the development might be divvied up among multiple tenants, but the pre-leasing activity from Lockheed Martin and Big Ass Fans left the firm pleasantly surprised, said Taylor Mitcham, Creation’s principal of Texas.
Creation typically funds projects through institutional joint venture equity. While that space was slow last year, the firm dual-headquartered in Dallas and Phoenix experienced strong leasing activity in 2023 and continues to see the same in 2024.
“We’re very lucky for all the same, typical things everybody mentions with D-FW being centrally located and with so much population growth. Having two major cities here with two different economies is huge,” said Mitcham, also noting the ease of travel throughout the area.
Mitcham said companies leasing these types of spaces are seeing those same things and capitalizing on them.
“I think last year was slow for all of us on the financial side because of rising interest rates and whatever the news was announcing that day, but now over the past three to six months, we’ve seen a little bit more calmness in the market and on the interest rate side and some consistency for 2024,” said Mitcham.
He noted an election year tends to throw up a question mark in the real estate market.
“As we get closer to the end of the year, it may feel a little bit different, but right now, the optimism in the market is very much palpable,” Mitcham said.
Holt Lunsford Commercial’s Matt Carthey and George Jennings are handling the leasing at Fort West.
Located on NW Centre Drive off Loop 820, the development’s third building, which is 173,992 square feet, remains available.
