The Kansas City Star

Crandall to Oversee Gardner Project

March 7, 2007

The Allen Group has chosen an area real estate executive to oversee the development of Gardner’s big truck-rail center and other area projects.

William F. Crandall has been named president of Allen Group of Kansas, the San Diego-based developer said Monday. Crandall most recently headed his own real estate consulting firm, Crandall + Co. of Prairie Village.

Before that, he was with Zimmer Real Estate Services, where he led the development of Village West in Kansas City, Kan.

BNSF Railway chose The Allen Group last fall to develop the 1,300-acre, intermodal center. The railroad will deliver containers to the facility that will then be shipped by truck to their destinations.

The hub will be surrounded by warehouse and distribution centers.

The Gardner facility is expected to be operational in late 2008 or early 2009.

The Allen Group said it would be establishing an office near the truck-rail hub site.

The firm said Crandall would also manage development projects of Applebee’s International Inc. and Andrews McMeel Universal, as well as finding other real estate ventures in the area.

Kansas City Business Journal

KC Logistics Hub Gets Leader

March 6, 2007

The Allen Group, developer of the Kansas City Logistics Hub in Gardner, has named William Crandall as president of its Kansas branch. Crandall, of Leawood, will lead the group’s local practice, overseeing development of the hub and watching for additional real estate opportunities, the company said in a release Monday. The Allen Group, a San Diego-based industrial and office properties developer, will set up Kansas City-area operations near the Gardner project.

“My decision to leave my old company was based solely on the substance of this new opportunity and its economic benefit for Kansas,” Crandall said Tuesday. “(The logistics hub) should be a very intellectually demanding project consistent with some of my other projects.”

Crandall leaves a position as president of Crandall+Co., a real estate consulting firm he created about a year ago. He brings to The Allen Group his business portfolio, which includes projects for Applebee’s International Inc. and Andrews McMeel Universal.

Before forming Crandall+Co., Crandall worked for Kansas City-based Zimmer Real Estate Services LC. He served as master developer for the Village West retail and entertainment venue in Kansas City, Kan., and as development manager for the Sprint World Headquarters Campus in Overland Park.

Dallas Business Journal

ATC Trucks into South Dallas

Freightliner Group to spend $15M on second Big D dealership, hire up to 200

February 16, 2007

As many as 200 new jobs will pour into South Dallas in 2008, when new- and used-truck dealer The Around the Clock Freightliner Group LP locates a new sales and service dealership along busy Interstate 20.

Family-owned ATC, which is housed in Oklahoma City, plans to start construction on a 185,000-squarefoot facility, its second in Dallas and third in North Texas, on June 1, said Kirk Hagan, vice president and CFO.

With an investment of upward of $15 million, the state-of-the-art dealership should open nine to 12 months later, Hagan said.

One key target, especially for servicing: all the 18-wheelers that traverse 1-20.

“The volume of trucks on 1-20 is so much greater than on I^,” Hagan said. “You only need a small fraction of those to increase your business substantially” Twenty-four-year-old ATC sells new and used trucks, 99% of them made by Oregon-based Freightliner LLC. In addition to a dealership in Oklahoma City, ATC has a Dallas Freightliner- Western Star dealership at 3040 Irving Blvd; in Dallas, as well as dealerships in Fort Worth and Tulsa, Okla.

The 15-year-old Dallas location accounted for 40% of ATC’s $400 million revenue in 2006, Hagan said.

That 90,000square-foot operation on 11 acres, with 156 employees, will remain open.

The second Dallas dealership, which will be the company’s largest, is expected to bring $300 million in revenue by the end of 2008, said John Miciotto, general manager of Dallas Freightliner Western Star.

ATC recorded double-digit growth the past three years, Miciotto said, and that is projected to continue.

ATC’s largest expansion ever is being driven by the fact that Dallas has become the distribution hub for the Southwest, Miciotto said.

Freightliner LLC also is dominating the truck market, with combined North American market share of more than 35 %, he said.

At the same time ATC has outgrown its existing Dallas center; said Miciotto, who also will manage the new facility.

Operations in South Dallas will include new and used truck sales, parts and service for both local and transient customers, financing, insurance, contract maintenance and classroom training for service technicians.

ATC’s southern location will hire up to 200 employees as business ramps up, many of them skilled service technicians. Those jobs pay from $15 to $25 an hour or more, Miciotto said. That will mark a job boon for South Dallas, where the economy has only recently pierced to life after decades of lading the larger Metroplex.

Biggest employer

The new ATC dealership will sit on 24 acres in the Dallas SouthPort Center business park at Bonnie View Road and 1-20. A general contractor hasn’t been selected yet.

“ATC will be the biggest employer in the southern sector announced so far,” said David Garner, principal with Garner Commercial Inc., who represented SouthPort.

ATC will be the fifth tenant at SouthPort. The others are Wal-Mart, with a tire distribution center; trailer manufacturer Great Dane LP; anew Dallas Morning News packaging production plant and a Travel Centers of America truck stop.

The 400 acre park off I-20 was established in the mid-1990s, just one mile from biter state 45 and four miles from Interstate 35. It was purchased in August by California based The Allen Group, which is developing the adjacent Dallas Logistics Hub — more than 5,000 acres around the Dallas Intermodal Terminal.

A 360-acre facility for loading and off-loading trains bearing ocean-going containers, the DRR was built by Union Pacific Railroad Co. and opened in 2005.

A steady stream of semi-tractor trailer rigs move through the center. BNSF Railway Co. is now studying the possibility of opening an intermodal center in the area as well.

All the trucking activity is a big draw for ATC, Hagan said. To lure customers, ATC’s new facility will include air-conditioned and heated 24-hour; 7-day-week service bays and a parts warehouse, a customer lounge with a big-screen TV and stadium seating, washers and dryers, high-speed Internet access and locker rooms with showers conformed separately for men and women.

“We feel very confident these amenities will aid us in our recruiting efforts, plus provide unquestionable comfort for our customers,” Miciotto said. Garner worked with Rolando Leal, a sale and leasing specialist for Coldwell Banker Commercial, to scout the location for ATC.

Once a city of Dallas economic-development specialist. Garner has been working the real estate market in southern Dallas for 3 years. Leal, who grew up in that area of southern Dallas County was scouting retail locations when he learned ATC needed a site.

Together Garner and Leal looked up and down 1-45 and 1-20 for potential sites. Finally ATC settled on the SouthPort tract, and a deal was hammered out at Travel Center’s Burger King, Garner said.

ATC hasn’t applied yet for any incentives from the city of Dallas, but hopes to, Hagan said. The company had purchased a 50-acre tract of land a number of years ago on 1-20 near Houston School Road in Lancaster for a possible dealership. That land is now better suited for retail uses. Leal said.

The Topeka Capital-Journal

BNSF Expansion May Help Topeka

February 9, 2007

Development of a $200 million BNSF Railway facility in Gardner – southwest of metropolitan Kansas City – will benefit the company’s operation in Topeka, not harm it, railroad and Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce officials say.

Steve Forsberg, BNSF general director for public affairs, said Thursday “it is absolutely not true” that the Gardner facility would take railroad jobs from Topeka. If anything, the Gardner development would bolster the railroad’s support jobs in the capital city, he said.

Gardner is just southwest of the greater Kansas City area on Interstate 35. Forsberg said the site was chosen because of its access to the railroad tracks and the interstate. The facility will create an improved system for unloading freight, mainly intermodal freight containers, into warehouses and onto trucks and vice versa.

The railroad initially announced plans to acquire 1,000 acres, but so far has acquired only 800, Forsberg said.

He said the distribution center would represent a $650 million investment when fully built over 20 years. The entire facility will create 13,000 jobs in the state over that same period. About 12,000 of the jobs will be in the Johnson County area, including 7,500 in Gardner.

In announcing his candidacy for the Topeka City Council on Jan. 23, Joaquin Padilla said residents of the 2nd Council District were concerned about crime and the loss of Topeka jobs to the BNSF facility being developed at Gardner.

On Thursday, Padilla said his statement wasn’t intended to imply that existing jobs in Topeka would be moved to Gardner. He was merely criticizing Councilman John Alcala, who represents the 2nd Council District, and other city leaders for not trying harder to win the BNSF facility for Topeka.

Forsberg said the function of the Gardner facility won’t duplicate anything the railroad is doing in Topeka.

Doug Kinsinger, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce, agreed. Kinsinger said the Topeka chamber has adopted a statement in support of the Gardner facility.

“The more BNSF grows, the more our jobs will grow,” he said.

Kinsinger said locomotive repair being done in the Topeka shops in the past few years has nearly doubled as the railroad increases the amount of freight it hauls.

The railroad originally had hoped to have the intermodal Gardner operation running before the end of 2008. But on Thursday Forsberg said, “I don’t know whether or not that is going to hold.”

He said a number of entities are involved in studies of what needs to be done to make the project work. Forsberg said the railroad had hired the Allen Group, of San Diego, to handle most of the development details.

He said talks are under way with the Kansas Department of Transportation and the city of Gardner over access roads from I-35 into the site and possibly a new interchange with I-35.

Visalia Times-Delta

Visalia Industrial Park Lands Client for Warehousing

Tulare efforts for an industrial park still in planning stage

January 24, 2007

Visalia’s large-scale, 12-year-old industrial park continues to attract interest from a variety of companies wishing to ship and warehouse goods – and Tulare has industrial-park plans of its own.

Developer Bill Morgan of Exeter wants to buy 280 acres of land along state Highway 99 near the Tulare Municipal Airport. He hopes the site can be transformed into an industrial park on par with Visalia’s.

Can Tulare, like Visalia, become a serious player in warehousing and transportation?

“Competition is always going to be a factor in these types of businesses,” said Fred Brusuelas, a Visalia city planner. “Actually, the challenge for Visalia will be to purchase more property in that area so it can grow.”

That’s also the opinion of David Hernandez, director of construction services for Visalia-based The Allen Group, which just landed another client for its 480-acre Midstate 99 Distribution Center at the Visalia industrial park. WorkflowOne, a major business documents producer and distributor based in Dayton, Ohio, has agreed to lease 118,000 square feet of warehouse space, said Douglas Burnham, the company’s director of business services.

Burnham’s company did have its distribution center at a Tulare location, but opted for Visalia because of the way the current industrial park is set up.

“The Tulare location was more designed for manufacturing,” he said. “But the location in Visalia is better set up for warehousing and distribution.”

However, should Tulare come through with an industrial park that appeals to prospective shippers and warehousers, competition will intensify.

“Technical details, if handled properly, will give inquiring companies confidence in your city’s ability to expedite warehouse and transportation arrangements,” Brusuelas said.

It’s not enough to offer space for a warehouse and a road leading to it, he said.

Hernandez said that The Allen Group, started by Richard S. Allen – whose son, Luke Allen, who just joined the company, is a Redwood High graduate – began in Visalia and has spread nationally into such hub cities as Dallas and Kansas City. But the core business centers in California.

“The Allen Group and other companies located in Visalia are almost exactly split down the middle in distance between the ports of San Francisco and Oakland to the north, and Long Beach and San Pedro to the south,” Brusuelas said. “That is a huge advantage for shipping.”

The Allen Group isn’t the only company attracted to the Visalia industrial park.

Last month, the planning commission approved more than 1 million more square feet of warehousing space near Midstate 99 for the Diversified Development Group. The buildings are finished, ready for customers.

Commercial Property News

Allen Group Leases 118,000 SF of Industrial in California

January 23, 2007

The Allen Group, a major developer of industrial and office properties across the United States, today announced that it has leased space in the MidState Hayes Building #2 to WorkflowOne, a leading provider of document and business process outsourcing services. The 10-year lease covers 118,000 square feet of warehousing and distribution space at theMidState 99 Distribution Center on the northwest corner of Plaza Drive and Ferguson Ave. in Visalia, Calif.

Central Valley Business Times

Visalia Distribution Center Gains Another Tenant

WorkflowOne to lease 118,000-square-feet

MidState 99 Distribution Center now has two more buildings filled

January 23, 2007

WorkflowOne, which sells document and business process outsourcing services, it has leased space in the MidState 99 Distribution Center in Visalia, according to the developer of the complex, the Allen Group, a San Diego-based developer of industrial and office properties.

The 10-year lease covers 118,000 square feet of warehouse and distribution space in the MidState Hayes Building #2.

“The new business service center in Visalia will help WorkFlowOne offer improved services to our West Coat customers,” says Douglas Burnham, senior director of distribution services. “In addition to increased inventory capacity, it enables us to provide  one0day shipping to virtually all of California.”

The MidState 99 Distribution Center has direct access to Highway 99, the state’s major trucking center.

“MidState 99 is unlike any other distribution and manufacturing site in the state,” claims Harve Filuk, vice president of development in California for The Allen Group. “Companies located at MidState 99 tactically benefit from the ability to efficiently serve 98 percent of California overnight via next-day UPS Ground service, which is nearly impossible from other distribution locations.”

The tenant signing of WorkFlowOne will result in MidState Hayes Buildings #2 and #3 being 100 percent occupied, Mr. Filuk says.

He says his company is in the planning stages for the next speculative buildings at MidState Business Park, with hopes to begin construction this summer.

WorkFlowOne is a unit of privately held WorkFlow Management Inc. of Greenwich, Conn.

Fidelity Investments

MidState Hayes Buildings #2 and #3 Now Fully Occupied

January 22, 2007

VISALIA, Calif., Jan 22, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) — The Allen Group, a major developer of industrial and office properties across the United States, today announced that it has leased space in the MidState Hayes Building #2 to WorkflowOne, a leading provider of document and business process outsourcing services. The 10-year lease covers 118,000 square feet of warehousing and distribution space at the MidState 99 DistributionCenteron the northwest corner of Plaza Drive and Ferguson Avenue in Visalia, Calif.

“The new business service center in Visalia will help WorkflowOne offer improved services to our West Coast customers,” said Douglas Burnham, Senior Director of Distribution Services. “In addition to increased inventory capacity, it enables us to provide one-day shipping to virtually all of California.” WorkflowOne offers a wide variety of print and promotional products, as well as fulfillment and distribution services, to organizations of all sizes across the United States.

The MidState 99 Distribution Center is strategically located in the heart of Calif. With direct access to Highway 99, the state’s major trucking corridor, companies located at MidState 99 have the distinct advantage of being able to access both northern and southern California.

“MidState 99 is unlike any other distribution and manufacturing site in the state,” said Harve Filuk, Vice President of Development, California, The Allen Group.

“Companies located at MidState 99 tactically benefit from the ability to efficiently serve 98 percent of California overnight via next-day UPS Ground service, which is nearly impossible from other distribution site locations.”

The tenant signing of WorkflowOne will result in MidState Hayes Buildings #2 and #3 being 100 percent occupied. Filuk notes that the Company is already in the planning stages for the next speculative buildings at MidState Business Park, with hopes to begin construction this summer.

For more information on MidState 99 or The AllenGroup, log on to www.allengroup.com .

Editor’s note: A high resolution photo of the MidState 99Distribution Center is available upon request.

About The Allen Group

The Allen Group is a commercial development firm specializing in rail-served industrial parks and build-tosuit facilities, including Class A office buildings. The Company currently has 8,000 acres under development across the United States, with commercial properties ranging in size from 35,000 square feet to 1.7 million square feet, as well as four master-planned industrial parks. These projects include the International Trade andTransportation Center ( www.ittc.com ); MidState 99Distribution Center ( www.midstate99.com ); the DallasLogistics Hub ( www.dallashub.com ), and recently announced, a new BNSF Intermodal logistics hub near Kansas City.

The Allen Group, based in San Diego with regional offices in Visalia and Bakersfield, Calif., as well as Dallas, Texas, is trusted by Fortune 500 companies such as VF Corporation, Cox Communications, FedEx, International Paper Company, Intuit, Kraft Foods and Wal-Mart Stores. For more information about The AllenGroup, please visit www.allengroup.com .

The Dallas Morning News

And the Next Move … Dallas Logistics Hub is ChallengingFW’s Alliance for King of Industrial Centers

January 19, 2007

The newest rivalry between Dallas and Fort Worth has nothing to do with museums, sports teams or major airlines.

Thanks to recent development in southern Dallas County, each city now lies near a massive industrial and logistics park where developers are eager to build warehouses and distribution facilities.

In one corner sits a dominant Alliance, the 11,600-acre development north of Fort Worth that opened a little more than 17 years ago. Its owner: Hillwood, the large commercial and residential developer owned by Ross Perot Jr.

The challenger is the 6,000-acre Dallas Logistics Hub, which is south of downtown Dallas along Interstate 45 and other key highway and rail routes to the east. The Allen Group, a California real estate developer, owns the project and has begun to market it but hasn’t yet broken ground.

The hub is pursuing the same tenants Alliance does, such as big-box retailers and manufacturers. The battle may be David vs. Goliath, but it is the first time Alliance has faced a major local competitor.

Having two industrial parks should enhance North Texas’ reputation as one of the leading distribution centers in the country. It will give companies looking for warehouse space more choices.

But it could lead to squabbles over where government funds are used to build highways and other infrastructure for the region.

“There’s going to be intense competition,” said Terry Pohlen, director of the Center for Logistics Education and Research at the University of North Texas.

As international trade increases, there could be plenty of room for both parks, he said. Imports from China are soaring, and many of those goods are hauled from West Coast ports by freight trains to central locations like North Texas for distribution.

Competition between the parks is just beginning.

The Allen Group hasn’t signed any tenants yet for its Dallas hub, said Jon Cross, the company’s director of marketing, but it has made presentations to several Fortune 500 companies. It says it will advertise this year in national trade publications, such as Site Selection, and market the property at trade shows for site selectors and logistics firms.

The Dallas Logistics Hub plans to start construction of its first commercial buildings this year, along with a bridge and other infrastructure.

In an interview last fall, Richard Allen, the developer’s chief executive, said his park could offer tenants more attractive lease deals than Alliance.

Currently farmland, the property lies in an area long plagued by a lack of development and a high unemployment rate. Officials in Dallas, Wilmer, Hutchins and Lancaster are backing the project because it promises to create thousands of jobs.

Rail routes

Both parks are next to giant railroad terminals where truck drivers pick up shipping containers hauled by trains from West Coast ports.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., the Fort Worthbased railroad, handled about 587,000 containers and trailers at its Alliance terminal last year, up 42.5 percent from 2000 levels.

At the Dallas Logistics Hub, a $100 million Union Pacific terminal opened in 2005. The hub could gain an edge over Alliance if it gets a second rail terminal. Burlington Northern is negotiating with the Allen Group for an option to purchase several hundred acres at the Dallas hub for such a facility.

Alliance is a foreign trade zone, which means companies can eliminate certain U.S. customs duties and delays, and reduce their paperwork and fees.

The Dallas hub has applied for this designation and expects to receive it.

Despite the publicity surrounding the Dallas hub, business shows no signs of slowing down at Alliance. It continues to attract new distribution centers for goods made in Mexico and Asia.

Later this month or in early February, Alliance is expected to announce a deal with a Fortune 500 company that will lease more than a million square feet for its products, which are produced in Mexico.

That comes on top of landing a 402,500-square-foot center for the distribution of Mexican-made Lego toys. And several existing tenants, such as IDC, which imports outdoor lighting products, have announced plans to expand their facilities or move into bigger ones.

Selling points

“We’ve tried to work with people on not just real estate, but other issues that impact their business” such as labor and transportation, said Bill Burton, senior vice president of Hillwood Properties.

When asked whether Alliance is lowering leasing rates because of the Dallas hub, Mr. Burton said, “We have to compete. We have a lot of things to offer besides the real estate.”

These include the flexibility of owning multiple buildings in a single park, workforce training and screening, and proximity to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport’s cargo operations.

Mr. Burton says he hasn’t run into a situation yet where a potential tenant was trying to decide between the two developments and pressing for better deals from both.

But such a scenario may not be far off. Target Corp. is rumored to be looking at both parks for a new distribution center in North Texas.

Target did not return telephone calls seeking comment, and both the Allen Group and Alliance said they couldn’t discuss the matter.

“There will be deals that look at both,” Mr. Burton said. “We’re going to have competition.”

‘Still climbing’

Companies building or leasing facilities at Alliance are well aware that there’s an alternative in southern Dallas County.

KFS Inc. of Grapevine, a logistics and transportation services provider, decided to build a 140,000-squarefoot freight forwarding facility at Alliance because “it is an established quality development,” said James Keller, the company’s president.

“While it has a lot of potential, it [Dallas Logistics Hub] is not as far along,” he said.

But Alliance isn’t resting on its laurels. The park is only 35 percent developed and is launching five more buildings, Mr. Burton said. In addition, it’s trying to make it easier to get in and out of the development by adding more lanes to Interstate 35

West.

And at Fort Worth Alliance Airport, which is located within the park, officials are working to extend the runways to accommodate bigger cargo planes.

“You always need to check your rearview mirror,” Mr. Burton said. “In our opinion, we’re still climbing the mountain.”

The Kansas City Star

Gardner Seeks Lawmakers’ Help Securing Interchange

January 18, 2007

Gardner officials asked Johnson County lawmakers on Wednesday for help getting a new interchange on Interstate 35 to serve a planned 1,300-acre freight center there.

Officials from BNSF Railway Co. and the Allen Group, developers of the project southeast of Gardner, called the project the largest economic development effort in Kansas in the last 40 years.

Skip Kalb Jr., the railroad’s strategic development director, said the project would generate 13,000 jobs and provide $2 billion in economic benefit to the state.

“So, what’s the problem?” asked Sen. David Wysong, a Mission Hills Republican, after the 40- minute presentation to a meeting of the Johnson County legislative delegation.

“We need an interchange,” said Gardner Mayor Carol Lehman. “We want to have it happen as quickly as possible. We don’t want trucks driving up and down our city streets.”

Steve Forsberg, a BNSF spokesman, said estimates for construction of an interchange range from $15 million to $25 million.

Kalb said the railroad hopes to open the freight facility late next year. Officials said the exact location of the interchange hasn’t been determined but it would be near 199th Street and I-35.

“You can count on this delegation to advance the progress of this project,” said Rep. Arlen Siegfreid, an Olathe Republican and chairman of the county delegation.

Gardner will be facing tremendous transportation demands as BNSF moves forward with a 350-acre intermodal hub that will be coupled with a 1,000- acre warehouse and distribution center on the city’s western edge.

When the freight center opens in 2008, it could generate roughly 5,900 vehicle trips a day, of which a little more than a third will be trucks.

Traffic is expected to grow to 59,000 vehicle trips a day by the time the center is fully built out in 2025.

About 10,000 of those trips will be trucks. A study indicates the traffic will require an estimated $66 million in road projects, including the new interchange on Interstate 35. The I-35 interchange at Gardner Road also will need to be modified to handle increasing traffic that will come with the project.