Developer addressing cold storage gap in Dallas-Fort Worth

DALLAS, Apr. 1, 2021 – JLL Capital Markets is marketing a joint venture equity opportunity on behalf of Cold Creek Solutions for the development of a 374,560-square-foot, speculative, state-of-the-art cold storage facility in a premier cold storage submarket within Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Once completed, the project will be only the 15th cold storage facility constructed in the last 20 years in Texas and one of the first in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Out of the top 10 cold storage markets by capacity, the state of Texas is the most underserved state with the lowest capacity per capita of the subset. 

The recent explosion of e-commerce adoption and the rise of online grocery demand during the pandemic has increased the need for cold storage space. Coupled with the age of the majority of cold storage product in the market and lack of available supply, the demand for new construction is stronger than ever, demonstrated by a current cold storage occupancy rate of 98.2 percent.

JLL Research identified eight key trends across the cold storage sector in its Cold Storage in the post-COVID economy whitepaper, and the rise of speculative construction was one of them. Given the complexity in design, the increased demand as noted above and high costs in renovating older warehouses to cold storage, speculative construction for new cold storage assets is gaining popularity.

“The Cold Creek team is excited to bring this project to the market to help meet the critical need for frozen and refrigerated infrastructure in the DFW Metroplex,” said Matt McWilliams President and Managing Partner, Cold Creek Solutions, LP. “Being in close proximity to both Dallas and Fort Worth, our location was chosen to serve businesses that currently operate in the DFW area as well as those coming to the metroplex to take advantage of our booming local economy and access to our expansive transportation and logistics infrastructure.”  

The facility will have a clear height of 45 feet for the warehouse and 28 feet for the cold dock, allowing for more than 60,000 pallet positions; multiple tenant suites with convertible temperature functionality; 53 refrigerated loading positions; 65 trailer parking spaces; and ample car parking.

Situated on roughly 23 acres just northwest of Interstate 35 and Barthold Road, the facility will be constructed in the rapidly growing Denton Industrial submarket, which is in the northern part of the Dallas-Fort Worth MSA. This location exceptional access to Interstate 35, the main arterial highway in the area, and allows future tenants to serve local and regional food processing and manufacturing companies within the entire DFW metroplex. DFW is centrally located among the four major employment centers in North America—New York, Los Angeles, Mexico City and Toronto—and offers distributors access to 79 U.S. markets and 93 percent of the U.S. population within a 48-hour delivery window.

The JLL Capital Markets Equity Placement team representing the developer is being led by Senior Managing Director Dustin Volz, Senior Director Marc Duval, Directors Will Mogk and Dom Espinosa Associate Wells Waller and Analyst Pauli Kerr. 

JLL Capital Markets is a full-service global provider of capital solutions for real estate investors and occupiers. The firm's in-depth local market and global investor knowledge delivers the best-in-class solutions for clients — whether investment sales advisory, debt placement, equity placement or a recapitalization. The firm has more than 3,700 Capital Markets specialists worldwide with offices in nearly 50 countries.

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