Tim Lescalleet, Griffin Land
New England Tradeport
New England Tradeport is a 600-acre industrial business park located near I-91 in the towns of Windsor and East Granby. The park offers an array of strategic advantages, including:
* Four lane access to/from I-91, and only a short drive to I-90 and I-84
* Easy trucking distances to:
- One-third of U.S. markets
- Two-thirds of Canadian markets.
* Adjacent to Bradley International Airport
* Abundant labor force
* Bus transit commuting alternatives
* Moderately priced area housing inventory
* State and municipal economic development incentive packages
* Well capitalized and stable ownership
* Industry award winning park, buildings and management team
It is for these advantages that New England Tradeport is home to some of America's top companies, including AAR, Domino's, Eaton Corporation, FedEx, Marcone, Matheson, Pepsi, Pitney Bowes, UPS, Tire Rack, Velux, Walgreen's and Westinghouse.
Premiere Industrial
Warehouse Space Available
A wide collection of high bay industrial space options are available for lease within New England Tradeport's 15 existing buildings, with sizes ranging from 5,000 to 130,000 s/f. Building features include:
* 26 to 30 ft. clear heights
* 45 to 50 ft. column spacing, with a variety of shallow and deep bay alternatives
* All masonry construction
* ESFR sprinkler system
* Deep truck courts
* Surplus trailer parking areas
Shovel Ready Sites
Four "shovel ready" sites are currently available within the park, with approved building formats of approximately 120,000, 128,000, 139,000 and 240,000 s/f, respectively. Griffin Land is prepared to construct either its prototypical building or a user's specific facility on a pre-lease or build-to-suit basis.
The four sites are what remain from planning initiatives that began in 2007 to expand the New England Tradeport from ten existing buildings totaling approximately 900,000 s/f, to today's combination of 20 buildings and approved sites totaling 3.3 million s/f. Much of this expanded capacity was absorbed by users including Walgreen's and The Tire Rack, each of which located large format facilities within the park. However, additional un-entitled land is available within the park's boundaries to expand this "shovel ready" capacity further.
Build-to-Suit Development
More and more companies are electing to have facilities constructed on a build-to-suit basis. New England Tradeport also offers this option, with numerous permitted and raw land sites available.
In 2009, Griffin Land completed the construction and long-term lease of a 304,000 s/f warehouse that was built specifically for The Tire Rack Inc., a national distributor of performance tires and related products. The facility also has site approvals in hand for its expansion up to a total of 450,000 s/f.
An additional 185 acres of un-entitled land is available within Tradeport to address an increasing interest in small to large format build-to-suit development.
Griffin Land is the real estate division of Griffin Land & Nurseries, Inc. The real estate business is comprised of the ownership, construction and management of commercial and industrial properties, and the development of residential subdivisions on real estate owned by Griffin in Conn., Mass. and the Lehigh Valley region of Pa.
Griffin is one of the largest private landowners in the region with approximately 4,000 acres in the Connecticut River Valley. Griffin is the award winning developer of over three million s/f of commercial space; approximately two-thirds of which it has retained ownership. Two of Griffin's largest business parks are Griffin Center, located in Windsor and Bloomfield, Conn. and New England Tradeport, located in Windsor and East Granby, Conn.
Tim Lescalleet is senior vice president at Griffin Land, Bloomfield, Conn.