Activity, leasing ramping up at Majestic Commercenter

Shamrock Foods has begun construction on its 1.3-million square-foot complex at Majestic Commercenter – part of more than 2 million sf of industrial warehouse and distribution activity at the nearly 1,600-acre master-planned business park at Interstate 70 and Tower Road, continuing east to E-470 in Aurora.

Shamrock Foods’ new 116-acre facility will include its regional headquarters, distribution center and ancillary buildings.

The distribution center will comprise a 900,000-sf footprint with an additional 200,000-sf mezzanine level. The building will feature the region’s first 70-foot-high walls, housing a 700,000-sf freezer/cooler system – the largest such system in a five-state region. It is slated for completion in 2021.

The balance of its five-building complex, comprising 200,000 sf, will be split among four ancillary buildings to be developed in the coming years. Commerce Construction, a subsidiary of Majestic Realty Co., won the competitive bid to build the facilities.

Shamrock Foods’ complex is being built on the eastern side of Majestic Commercenter, bordering E-470, on a 538-acre land parcel Majestic Realty, the developer of Majestic Commercenter, purchased in 2015 to meet the projected need for large-scale distribution and e-commerce facilities in the region.

“Our 2015 land acquisition helped us to expand our overall footprint to nearly 1,600 total acres and gave us the opportunity to deliver a larger-scale product to a wide range of e-commerce users,” said Majestic Realty Co. Vice President Michael Kapoor. “E-commerce is continuing to drive the commercial real estate industry with larger and larger buildings. We’re seeing greater demand in the 1 million-and-up-square- foot range and, as evidenced by our agreement with Shamrock, land requirements and tenant improvements slightly differ from the traditional warehouse and distribution building. With this additional flexibility in our overall park structure, we’re well positioned to accommodate the increasing activity and wide range of user needs, from build-to-suit, to land sales and speculative development.”

Additional development land is still available neighboring the Shamrock Foods site, which can accommodate up to five more buildings ranging from 750,000 to 1.5 million sf each.

Over the last several months, there has been significant leasing activity at the Aurora development as well.

In March, Majestic Realty completed a long-term lease agreement with Amazon to occupy the entire 702,000-sf Building #15 at the park. Nicknamed the “Big Bomber,” the building is the state’s largest speculative industrial building ever constructed.

Tenant improvements by Commerce Construction and Amazon Logistics are being completed with the facility designed for last-mile delivery to be operational this month. The building, situated on 36 acres, includes a 36-foot ceiling clearance, 146 dock doors, 198 trailer parking spaces and 426 car spaces.

Amazon also operates a more than-450,000-sf sortation center at Majestic Commercenter.

Four new lease renewals totaling 200,000 sf also were inked at Majestic Commercenter. The lease renewals include: Expeditors’ 65,000-sf lease in Building #22, Pods’ lease of 60,000 sf in Building #24, CeDur’s 45,000-sf lease in Building #6 and Mohawk Industries’ 30,000-sf lease in Building #25.

An additional 250,000 sf of tenant lease renewals also are in the final stages of completion, according to Kapoor.

Majestic Commercenter comprises more than 5 million sf in development built since 1996 with all but 280,000 sf (a build-to-suit for L’Oreal in 1998) have been developed on spec by Majestic.

The park is home to 50 companies and more than 4,000 employees.

Featured in the July 15-August 4, 2020, issue