Tim Lescalleet, Griffin Land
Griffin Land has four fully approved sites totaling more than 600,000 s/f within New England Tradeport. These sites have received municipal site plan approval and also approvals from the State Traffic Commission and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. In addition, 185 acres of un-entitled land is available to address a tenant's specific build-to- suit requirements.
Griffin secured permitting for its "shovel ready" parcels in order to continue a development program that began in 1997. From inception of this program, Griffin has developed and constructed more than one million s/f of industrial space within nine buildings. Griffin intends to continue its program and, with its approved sites, has the flexibility to offer numerous "shovel ready" alternatives on which to construct either its prototypical building or a user's specific facility on a pre-lease or build-to-suit basis.
New England Tradeport
The New England Tradeport is a 600-acre industrial business park strategically located near I-91 in the towns of Windsor and East Granby. Because of its proximity to Bradley International Airport and its easy access to I-91, New England Tradeport is a magnet for some of the top companies in America including; AAR Parts Trading, Domino's, Eaton Corporation, FedEx, Marcone, Matheson, Pepsi, Pitney Bowes, UPS, Tire Rack, Velux, Walgreens and Westinghouse.
The Master Plan
Planning efforts for these "shovel ready" sites began in 2005 and ran simultaneously with the negotiation and closing of a sale to Walgreens of 130 acres of land within the park for the location of a 1.05 million s/f northeast distribution facility. In order to accommodate these requirements Griffin Land embarked upon the planning of a major expansion of the park; from ten existing buildings totaling approximately 900,000 s/f to a combination of nineteen buildings and approved sites totaling 2.9 million s/f. In late 2008 Griffin Land received approvals to expand this capacity further, by an additional 450,000 s/f, for the purposes of constructing a build-to-suit facility for a national tire distributor.
Increased Interest in Build to Suit Development
In July of 2009 Griffin completed the build-to-suite construction of a 304,000 s/f warehouse that is under long term lease with The Tire Rack Inc., a national distributor of performance tires and related products. The facility is approved for 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.
Premiere Industrial Warehouse Space Available
Alternatively, if existing industrial space is what you seek, then choose from an array of options comprised of the best well located industrial warehouse buildings in the Greater Hartford region. Presently, the park has numerous available industrial space options for lease, ranging from 6,000 to 100,000 s/f. Building features include 26 to 30 ft. clear heights, all masonry construction, ESFR sprinklers, deep truck courts, and surplus trailer parking areas.
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 Connecticut, Massachusetts, and the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania.
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 in Windsor/ Bloomfield and New England Tradeport in Windsor.
Tim Lescalleet is senior vice president at Griffin Land, Bloomfield, Conn.