CoStar Group

The Allen Group Taps New VP of Development

Harve Filuk To Lead California Division

January 16, 2007

Harve Filuk, who has more than 20 years experience dealing with commercial real estate development, was named vice president of development with The Allen Group’s California division. The Allen Group is a commercial development firm that specializes in build-to-suit facilities and industrial parks.

In his new role, Filuk will manage all of the company’s interests in California as well as development projects. He previously managed all of the Allen Group’s commercial developments in San Diego. Filuk has been with The Allen Group since 1999.

The Fresno Bee

MAK’S EATERY READY FOR TAKE OFF; Restaurant is just one of a number of additions at Chandler Executive Airport.

January 8, 2007

One of the nation’s largest distributors of animal health products is consolidating Tulare and Fresno operations into a new warehouse in Visalia. Walco International has signed a lease to occupy 68,000 square feet in a warehouse owned by TheAllen Group, a major commercial developer.

“Visalia provides a strategic location for the distribution of our products throughout the West Coast,” said Mark Gray, vice president of operations for Walco.

The warehouse is near Visalia’s airport, but is only a small part of The Allen Group’s presence in the San Joaquin Valley. The company has developed about 2 million square feet of industrial and commercial property in Visalia, where it has the 480-acre Midstate 99 Distribution Center.

VF Corp, one of the world’s largest clothing companies, announced plans to operate a 1 millionsquare- foot warehouse at Midstate 99.

The Allen Group also has the 700-acre International Trade and Transportation Center in Shafter, which is home to a 1.7 million-square-foot distribution center, and recently bought 107 acres next to Meadows Field Airport in Bakersfield, where it plans offices and stores, said Jon Cross, a company spokesman.

That adds up to a lot of land to develop, but Cross said businesses are seeking out space in the Valley because they want out of congested and expensive real estate in the Los Angeles and San Francisco regions.

The Allen Group is developing a total of 8,000 acres in the United States, including 6,000 acres near Dallas, Texas. It also will be a partner with BNSF railway in an industrial park project in Texas.

All this from a company started by Richard Allen in Visalia after he sold a cup-manufacturing business.

Texas Construction

The Allen Group, BNSF Railway Negotiating DallasLogistics Hub Site

BNSF Railway Co. may develop intermodal facility atDallas Logistics Hub.

January 1, 2007

The Allen Group, a major developer of logistics parks, industrial and office properties, is working with BNSF Railway Co. to secure an option for the purchase of several hundred acres within the Dallas Logistics Hub in southern Dallas County for the potential construction and operation of an intermodal facility.

The site under consideration fronts on 8,000 lin. ft. of BNSF track in the city of Dallas and represents a portion of the 2.5 mi. of BNSF track frontage within Dallas Logistics Hub. The option term would be for a period of 18 months, during which BNSF would conduct due diligence and market analysis for the feasibility of the potential intermodal facility.

Visalia Times-Delta

Walco to Lease Space in Visalia

28 December 2006

Walco International, a major distributor of animal health products to dairy operators, veterinarians and retailers, has signed a lease to occupy 68,000 square feet of distribution space in the Visalia industrial park.

The company is consolidating its Tulare and Fresno offices at the new center in Visalia.

“Walco International is the largest animal health product distributor in North America, and Visalia provides a strategic location for the distribution of our products throughout the West coast,” operations vice president Mark Gray said in a statement.

The announcement was made by The Allen Group, owner and developer of the space Walco agreed to lease.

The Allen Group will do some customizing of the space before turning it over to Walco in March, said David Hernandez, who is the director of commercial construction for the company.

Walco International has more than 60 locations throughout the U.S. and Canada, with seven of those in California.

It purchases pharmaceuticals, equipment, biological and feed additive products from virtually all major U.S.-based manufacturers and distributes them to commercial animal food processors, veterinarians and retail dealers.

The company also distributes products for pets to veterinarians and retail dealers.

The Kansas City Star

Three Big Area Projects Are Under Way; Plans by BNSF and Kansas City Southern and at KCI Touted as Opportunities.

7 December 2006

Kansas City already has a strong economic advantage as a transportation hub, and it’s going to keep growing with three big intermodal projects in the works, experts said Wednesday.

An audience of real estate professionals hosted by Grubb & Ellis/The Winbury Group was briefed on the massive new intermodal center being developed by BNSF near Gardner, as well as Kansas City Southern ’s plan for a similar facility at the former Richards-Gebaur Memorial Airport and the city’s push to attract development to Kansas City International Airport.

“Our opportunity for growth is tremendous,” said Chris Gutierrez, president of Kansas City SmartPort Inc. , who added Kansas City already leads the nation in railroad cargo tonnage and is second only to Chicago in total railroad car activity.

Gutierrez participated in a panel on local economic development along with Skip Kalb Jr., BNSF director of strategic development; Bill Duncan, president of the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute , and Bob Walker, director of communication for Bayer HealthCare’s Animal Health Division.

Kalb said planning is well under way for the 1,300-acre intermodal facility his railroad is developing southwest of Gardner.

The intermodal operation where goods will be off-loaded from trains to trucks is anticipated to occupy about 300 acres. The remainder of the property is expected to be developed with 12 million square feet of warehouses and distribution buildings.

Intermodal development is the fastest growing segment of the railroad business, he noted. Texas-based BNSF has hired 18,000 workers over the past five years and is planning five intermodal centers around the country, with Gardner the furthest along.

When completed, BNSF plans to close its intermodal operation at the Argentine rail yard in Kansas City, Kan. Rail operations will continue there.

The new facility near Gardner is expected to create 13,000 jobs when the distribution facilities are fully built out. The Allen Group of San Diego has been hired by BNSF to oversee development of the warehouse facilities.

“It’s a major impact, not just for Kansas City but globally,” Kalb said. “It will be one of the largest in the world.”

The force driving the growth of intermodal is the huge amount of trade flowing into West Coast ports.

“It’s all about China,” Kalb said.

He added that companies are finding it more cost-effective — in part because of rising fuel prices — to ship goods by rail and then transport shorter distances by truck.

Similar activity is occurring at Richards-Gebaur, where Kansas City Southern is helping develop an intermodal center to offload Asian goods being shipped here via Mexico.

Gutierrez said Kansas City may soon be in a position to be at the center of an east-west railroad corridor operated by BNSF, and a north-south corridor being operated by Kansas City Southern.

In the meantime, the Kansas City Aviation Department has hired Trammell Crow to guide development of 640 acres of vacant airport property for use as distribution centers, and the department recently purchased the former Farmland Industries headquarters building to help economic development.

One aspect in which the city lags is providing enough warehouses and distribution space to accommodate its growing transportation industry.

“The big question is: ‘Are we ready for Class A industrial speculative construction?’ ” Gutierrez asked.

A similar concern came up last summer when the Kansas City Area Development Council invited a national corporate site selection expert to town.

While praising the city’s geographic advantages for transportation-related investment, J.M. Mullis Inc. observed the vacancy rate for industrial space in Kansas City was tight, a detriment to attracting new businesses.

Another issue touched on by the panel was the region’s reputation as a center for animal health science. Walker, Bayer’s representative, said Kansas City is the heart of the Animal Health Corridor , a territory stretching between the two veterinary schools at Kansas State University and the University of Missouri-Columbia .

There are about 120 animal health companies in the region, accounting for about one-third of the $14 billion animal health industry worldwide.

“This is the global hub of animal health research, marketing and sales,” he said.

Finally, Duncan said the recent approval by Missouri voters of the amendment allowing embryonic stem-cell research and all other federally approved medical research was a critical factor in the decision by the Stowers Institute for Medical Research to proceed with planning for a 600,000-square-foot expansion project in Kansas City.

“The passing of Amendment 2 was a huge burden to overcome and the Stowers folks are moving forward,” Duncan said. “They have done a lot of work looking at developing a phase two facility adjacent to the existing facility.”

Duncan said he expects the institution’s scientific advisory board to consider a proposal in April.

“We hope to aggressively move forward after the April get-together,” he said.

“The important result of the vote is to indicate to the world that this region will accommodate cutting-edge, world research and it will help recruit world-class scientists.”

The Topeka Capital-Journal

Gardner Vote May Lead to Jobs

6, November 2006

Voters in the Johnson County community of Gardner favor allowing their city to pursue land for a railroad logistics center that would employ more than 7,500 people.

On Tuesday, 72.3 percent of the ballots cast favored allowing Gardner to consider annexation of the property, while 27.6 percent were against the city’s consideration of annexation. The city will begin studying the annexation question on Monday at a city council work session, said Melissa Mundt, assistant city administrator of Gardner, a community of 17,000 people in southwest Johnson County.

She said voters were asked whether they wanted to defer consideration of annexation for 10 years. There were 2,903 no votes and 1,108 yes votes, meaning the majority of voters didn’t want to defer annexation.

Steve Forsberg, BNSF spokesman, said the election shows voters want the city to have the option of annexing the BNSF property.

“It sent a strong signal to the city council that voters recognized one way for them to influence development and benefit from tax revenues is to leave it open for consideration for annexation by the city council,” Forsberg said. “The margin of vote seems to be a pretty strong signal.”

Forsberg said BNSF has acquired about 800 of the 1,000 acres needed for the BNSF Intermodal and Logistics Park.

BNSF will invest $200 million for an intermodel facility on 350 acres.

He said BNSF recently selected the Allen Group, of San Diego, to develop the logistics park.

Forsberg said an economic study shows the distribution center would represent a $650 million investment when fully built over a 20-year period.

The entire facility will create 13,000 jobs in the state over a 20-year period. About 12,000 jobs will be in the Johnson County area with 7,500 jobs in Gardner.

Construction could start in 2007 after land acquisition and permitting.

“It’s one of the most significant economic developments in the state of Kansas in decades,” Forsberg said Tuesday.

Mundt, who said the development would be near her house, said she looked at a similar development in Illinois to see benefits and problems.

By annexing the land, the city could play a role in addressing infrastructure needs, traffic flow, aesthetic needs, visual effect, environmental concerns, noise and lighting.

Mundt said the city would be able to look at how it could “work toward making this a beneficial thing to the taxpayers of the community.”

The Dallas Morning News

Dallas Inland Port May Recruit BNSF Railroad Could Build Intermodal Terminal in Southern Zone

4 November 2006

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. is taking a first step toward building an intermodal terminal in southern Dallas County, which would help spur development of the economically depressed area.

The railroad said Friday that it is negotiating with the Allen Group for an option to purchase several hundred acres of land in the Dallas Logistics Hub, a 6,000-acre logistics and industrial park marketed by the California real estate developer.

The option would give the Fort Worth-based railroad 18 months to conduct due diligence and market analysis before deciding whether to purchase the property.

Burlington Northern currently operates an intermodal terminal at AllianceTexas, a mixed-used development north of Fort Worth. It employs 400 contract workers there.

“Here is an opportunity to at least explore something that might be needed as demand continues to grow,” Burlington Northern spokesman Richard Russack said.

The company stressed that it’s not abandoning its hometown.

“We are a Fort Worth-based company and we will continue to be a Fort Worth-based company,” Mr. Russack said. “Alliance is terribly important to us.” But the growth in trade has made it difficult to ignore the potential of southern Dallas County.

The area is situated along key highway and rail routes that have become more important, thanks to the flood of Asian imports.

Dallas and other city officials have been working to create an inland port in southern Dallas County, which would include the Dallas Logistics Hub, other developments and a Union Pacific intermodal terminal that opened last year.

A Burlington Northern terminal would provide a major boost to those efforts.

Allen spokesman Jon Cross said the companies are negotiating on a parcel ranging from 387 acres to 530 acres, west of a Burlington Northern rail line.

It’s not uncommon for Burlington Northern to have more than one intermodal terminal in an area, Mr. Russack said. The railroad has four in Chicago and two in Southern California, with a third one on the way.

The Dallas Morning News

A Grand Plan for Growth Lancaster: $300 Million Community Would Bring Parks, Posh Homes

20 October 2006

Lancaster’s development boom may soon become an explosion.

Lancaster Preserve LP has announced plans to build a 766-acre mixed-use community in the southern portion of the city that eventually could attract as many as 8,000 new residents.

The $300 million project, called The Preserve, would include a town center, private parks, a senior citizen community and custom homes, including some that would cost around $1 million.

Although work could start in early 2007, pending approval from city officials, the development would be phased in over 10 years. Close to 2,500 housing units could ultimately be included in The Preserve, which developers tout as the first mixed-use development of this magnitude in southern Dallas County.

“It’s going to have a tremendous impact on the city when it’s built out,” said Lancaster Mayor Joe Tillotson. “It will certainly bring something we’ve needed, in the form of high-end housing.”

The Preserve plans come on the heels of The Allen Group’s development of a 6,000-acre Dallas Logistics Hub, which is scheduled to break ground this year, and the Union Pacific Corp. intermodal rail terminal, which began operations in 2005.

Steve Topletz, general partner for Lancaster Preserve, said plans for The Preserve would complement those two major projects. “The city of Lancaster has been working with us hand-in-glove in the zoning process and everything else to make sure everyone is in agreement,” Mr. Topletz said.

Plans for The Preserve are being considered by the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission, which held a public hearing in September and continues to have workshops on the proposal.

The commission’s next work session is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the James R. Williams Pump Station, 1999 Jefferson St. If approved by that board, the project would go before the City Council for final approval.

Last year, Mr. Topletz sued the city in a dispute involving an unrelated residential project in which he wanted to place utility poles above ground. The city rejected his request, but a district judge eventually ruled in Mr. Topletz’s favor.

So far, there have been no major roadblocks for the current development – which would be on rolling wooded land between Interstates 35 and 45. He said the idea for The Preserve came from a need for a new type of mixed-use housing development.

“We were approached by business people in the community who literally work here every day but don’t live here,” Mr. Topletz said. “We needed to do some homework in this regard.”

What the developer determined was that Lancaster has been underserved in terms of residential development, especially for homes costing between $400,000 and $1 million. The initial phase of The Preserve will be a gated enclave with homes starting at $500,000.

Despite the support of city officials and many residents, the project is not without opposition. Wendell Prince, who lives near the project site, said he is worried about water runoff and potential flooding that such a massive development might cause.

“You’re talking about hundreds of acres of cement being put on top of land that is now agriculture land,” Mr. Prince said.

Romeo Lewis, who has lived in the area for 15 years, said the plans call for a shopping area and supermarket directly across from his home. “Like anybody else, I really don’t want that at my front door.”

“My major concern is the type of development they are portraying are things like senior citizens housing and a gated community and all that,”

Dr. Lewis said. “But once they get the zoning they want, are they going to do pretty much what they want?”

 Dr. Lewis said he knows development is going to come to his area of Lancaster sooner or later. He just hopes some of the rural character that makes the land so attractive is preserved.

But Terry Stinson, a lifelong resident of Lancaster, said he does not believe the new development would be detrimental to the community of about 33,000 people.

“I think it’d be a positive thing for the city,” said Mr. Stinson, a former City Council member. “I think people investing money in our community is a good thing.”

He also said that Lancaster’s location – about 15 miles south of downtown Dallas and between three interstate highways – makes it a prime spot for development.

“Obviously it’s not going to stay rural forever,” Mr. Stinson said. “It’s just a matter of trying to do the best we can for the area.”

TrafficWorld

BNSF Expands Intermodal Network

18 October 2006

Two new agreements this week will give Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway expanded intermodal capacity and a more efficientmeans of handling intermodal chassis.

A new logistics park near Kansas City, Mo., and a domestic chassis pool agreement for all BNSF domestic terminals are expected to streamline transportation’s fastest growing sector.

The Allen Group, a major developer of logistics parks and office properties throughout the United States, and BNSF Railway will develop a new logistics park near Gardner, Kansas, 25 miles southwest of Kansas City, Mo. The 1,000 acre logistics park will be adjacent to I-35 and BNSF’s Transcontinental mainline. Approximately 350 acres will be designated for a new BNSF Intermodal Facility with the remaining acreage dedicated for warehouse and distribution facilities by The Allen Group. The site is expected to be operational by 2008.

“As a result of the increase of trade with the Pacific Rim nations, rail movement and intermodal development has become a vital component in the international supply chain,” said Edward Romanov, President and COO of The Allen Group.

Interpool signed a ten-year agreement to manage domestic chassis pools and supply future chassis at all BNSF terminals handling domestic shipping containers. Under the agreement, Interpool will supply approximately 24,000 48′ and 53′ chassis that it owns or operates to BNSF customers, including truckload motor carriers and intermodal marketing companies. Lease agreements will be directly with customers. Interpool will manage the supply, flow and maintenance of domestic chassis in the BNSF pool system.

“We are pleased to be given this opportunity by BNSF which we feel will improve the speed and efficiency of domestic containerized cargo transport and help lower costs to our shippers, consignees, and the U.S. consumer,” said Martin Tuchman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Interpool.

National Real Estate Investor

Midwestern Industrial Park Announced

18 October 2006

Plans were announced this week to develop a 1,000-acre logistics park 25 miles southwest of Kansas City. The Allen Group, anational developer of logistics parks and office properties, will work with joint venture partner BNSF Railway Co. (NYSE: BNF) on the logistics park. A dollar amount on the total project cost was not disclosed. Roughly 350 acres of the site will also be cordoned off for a new BNSF Intermodal Facility. BNSF, one of the nation’s largest freight carriers, will develop and operate this new intermodal facility. Intermodals serve as hubs for the loading and unloading of shipping containers between truck and rail modes of transportation. “BNSF Railway and The Allen Group have a long-term working relationship and we are pleased with the confidence they have demonstrated in our company,” says Richard Allen, CEO of The Allen Group.

“We look forward to partnering with BNSF to create a major economic engine for jobs and new development in the region.” The Allen Group has developed more than $1 billion in projects nationwide. Both the intermodal facility and logistics park are expected to be finished late next year.