Newmark Knight Frank announced the development of a 617,760-square-foot industrial build-to-suit facility on more than 46 acres in the greater Cincinnati area for Design Within Reach.
DWR signed a long-term lease with Duke Realty for the distribution center, which will be used for e-commerce and omni-channel fulfillment across North America. The NKF team of Executive Managing Director Geoffrey Kasselman; Executive Vice President and Managing Director James Ritman; Executive Managing Director Si Pitstick; Senior Managing Director Josh Young; Senior Managing Director Tim Brogan; and Senior Managing Director Steve Bonge represented DWR in the transaction.
NKF also provided important labor analytics and incentives guidance and arranged for architecture firm Ware Malcomb to design the exterior ground-up construction and interior improvements. The project is slated to be finished in early 2019.
The new facility will be “future-proofed” with building design components that will include LED lighting throughout warehouse, office and exterior, extra roof structural support to house a future solar energy system, pre-installed conduit for several parking spaces to support electric vehicle charging, and provisions for a second primary power service from a different substation to support unimpeded operations under any circumstance. The advanced facility will be the first in a new business park in South Afton, located in Clermont County, Ohio.
The Ohio-based facility will replace two existing warehouses in Hebron, Kentucky, which DWR has outgrown given its growing and expansive brand. NKF helped DWR secure the second Hebron warehouse in 2017 to alleviate growth pains on a temporary basis, while arranging this South Afton space as a long-term solution. As part of the project, NKF also restructured the two Hebron leases to coincide with the delivery of the new BTS facility.
Negotiations included all facets of building and systems design, accelerated delivery with a compressed construction schedule, and an allowance for an additional 112,320-square-foot expansion to the facility. The precast building will feature 36-foot clear ceilings, a cross-dock design, ESFR sprinklers and have 12,000 square feet of office space, which will include many unique on-site employee amenities. DWR will employ about 75 people on a full-time basis at this facility.
This is not the first time NKF and DWR have partnered together. Ritman previously represented the furniture company when it moved its headquarters from San Francisco to Stamford, Connecticut, and actively represents DWR on its retail locations around the USA, serving as a strategic partner and helping DWR grow and thrive as a company.
Additionally, this is the second world-class e-commerce deal led by Kasselman for NKF in the past 12 months. He previously secured a 1.1-million-square-foot long-term lease on behalf of ASOS.
