The strategies of the nation’s industrial developers have changed, from simply placing big-box buildings on remote land parcels, to strategically determining how best to incorporate logistics, economics and leading-edge technology into industrial clients’ locations.
DP Partners, Nevada’s largest private industrial developer and one of the top 10 in the nation, is not only a case in point, but has been in the forefront in changing how it selects locations nationwide for development and investment, how it partners with financial allies and clients and how it utilizes construction and logistics advancements to remain a leader in its field.
Logistics has become the hot topic for companies of all categories that manufacture and/or distribute products to customers. Some firms – called third-party logistics, or 3PLs – distribute other companies’ products on a contract basis. In fact, one of DP Partners’ most successful relationships has been with ODC Integrated Logistics of Reno, a national 3PL company, which recently merged with Ozburn-Hessey Logistics.
Logistics is an art as well as a science, and industrial developers who understand it and have made efforts to integrate it into their efforts have reaped benefits. “For years we have been studying the needs of logistics-focused companies and refining the design and planning of our industrial parks to achieve the goal of developing top-of-the-line, investment-grade logistics parks worthy of national recognition and branding,” said Aaron Paris, executive vice president and chief operating officer of DP Partners. “We have developed a logistics-based industrial park ‘product’ called the LogistiCenter – short for logistics center – to focus our development team on producing the highest quality industrial parks in the nation.”
Thus far, DP Partners has opened LogistiCenters in: Rochelle, Ill., near Chicago; Las Vegas (located at Pecos and Alexander Road); at Carlisle, near Harrisburg, Pa.; and in Allentown, Pa. The LogistiCenter concept complements DP Partners’ existing 20-million-square-foot industrial portfolio.
DP Partners analyzed the special needs of logistics users and established development criteria unique to the distribution industry:
Affordable land in locations that are “just ahead of the growth curve,” according to Paris;
Locations with superior transportation structures, for both highway and rail access, and upgraded roads, including weight capacities of 80,000 pounds;
Extra parking and upgraded facilities, including state-of-the-art fiber-optic systems, larger-than-average water-pipe capacity and state-of-the-art fire sprinkler systems;
Flexible building design to accommodate a variety of users;
Quality covenants that maintain the investment value of the park for owners, investors and tenants.
“Obviously, this level of quality has a price tag, but we always strive to maintain affordability by establishing size limits for parks,” said Paris. “We have determined that the minimum size for a LogistiCenter park is 100 acres, which allows us to spread the cost of the extensive investment-based improvements and also pass on the savings to clients in the form of competitive lease rates.”
DP Partners was founded in 1960 in Reno, where it developed its first facility for a Fortune 500 company. During the late 1980s, DP Partners began to align itself with strategic partners to provide the company with the financial resources to refine existing operating systems and to enhance its national marketing and development plans. Today, more than 300 national and regional clients are doing business in DP Partners’ facilities from California to Pennsylvania.