Massive industrial building coming to Dayton airport

A developer looks to bring a large speculative industrial building to the Dayton International Airport, next to the recently announced Spectrum Brands facility.

Kansas City-based NorthPoint Development is in the early stages of planning a 500,000-square-foot warehouse building, according to a quarterly report on the Dayton industrial market by Colliers International.

The facility will sit adjacent to its other project at the airport, the 570,000-square-foot Spectrum Brands building.

Related: $33M Spectrum Brands facility in Dayton to have multiplier effect

Johan Henriksen, vice president of development for NorthPoint Development, said he couldn’t comment about the project and the company’s CEO did not return calls seeking comment. City of Dayton officials also did not return calls seeking comment.

Though officials with the project did not comment, the report was confirmed by multiple other Dayton-area real estate brokers familiar with the development plans.

The massive speculative building could attract an industrial user or users to the region that otherwise might not have been able to find a site. Tenants would likely create hundreds of new jobs in the region. The Spectrum project will create 350 new jobs.

Related: Tax incentives to help bring two big projects with hundreds of jobs to Dayton

The new building also reinforces the booming demand for industrial space in the Dayton region, particularly around the airport.

Dayton’s industrial real estate market has become increasingly strained for large space. There are only eight spaces with more than 100,000 square feet currently available in the Dayton area, according to Colliers.

The tightening market has driven up rental rates, putting more power in the hands of landlords as tenants compete for space. Construction costs also are starting to rise as well, along with the increase in demand.

However, the region has yet to see much large scale developments without a tenant or buyer lined up prior to starting construction, built on speculation that a user will be found.

This new project will be a test to help answer whether demand has risen to the point to where the market can support speculative construction.

“I’ve long felt that I-70/I-75 interchange was overdue to become a distribution hub,” said Loren DeFilippo, director of Ohio research for Colliers.

NorthPoint Development has a history of large industrial projects, including speculative spaces.

It’s behind the $33 million distribution center being built at the Dayton International Airport for Spectrum Brands. The company was awarded a tax credit from the Ohio Tax Credit Authority this week worth up to $617,000.

The project will establish a manufacturing, distribution and R&D facility that will serve several of Spectrum’s products, particularly automotive service brands, including STP.

NorthPoint has developed and managed more than 8 million square feet of industrial and warehouse space as of June 2015.

The company was behind the largest ever speculative building in the Kansas City area. The Kansas City Business Journal reported in March that Amazon would occupy the entire 822,104-square-foot property.

read the full article >>