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For the developers of Tampa's Port Ybor business park, the path to completion and full capacity seemed to take forever — even for a major project.
The 437,600-square-foot project, nearly a decade in the making, became fully occupied earlier this month when InStar Services Group signed a long-term lease for 16,537 square feet in Port Ybor's second building. Texas-based InStar now joins the U.S. Postal Service, Carrier Corp. and Shaw Industries at the 33-acre site east of downtown that was the former headquarters of the Tampa Port Authority.
“We've been 95% leased for over two years,” says Clay Witherspoon, managing director of Tampa-based Lane Witherspoon & Carswell Commercial Real Estate Advisors, Port Ybor's leasing agency. “This new lease was just the icing on the cake.”
The port authority approved the Port Ybor project in 2001, but ground wasn't broken on the first building until at least two years later. Delays such as increased port security, access road construction and declining demand for industrial space factored into the slow pace of the project.
Witherspoon, who previously worked with Trammell Crow Co. on the Port Ybor project, says the park's prime location at Grant Avenue and 20th Street is a positive, along with quick access to the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway and long-term prospects for port expansion. He adds that the USPS recently signed a five-year extension of its previous lease, adding further stability to the property.
ING Clarion worked with Trammell Crow (now part of CB Richard Ellis) to develop Port Ybor and now owns the park outright, Witherspoon says. Lane Witherspoon & Carswell is also working with ING Clarion to lease up its 680,000-square-foot Madison Industrial Park, near U.S. 41 on Tampa's east side.
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