Logistics, office park planned for Horn Lake
Atlanta-based firm acquires 173 acres for new industrial space, to be completed by fall
An Atlanta-based industrial real estate company has acquired 173 acres in Horn Lake to develop a business and logistics park called DeSoto 55 Logistics Center.
Core5 Industrial Partners will immediately start construction on 883,720 square feet of speculative Class A office/ warehouse space with two buildings, the company announced Thursday. One will be 582,400 square feet and the other a 301,320-square-foot “rear-load building which will present high office build-out capability.”
Both structures are to be completed by this fall.
“DeSoto 55 Logistics Center will provide an outstanding business environment in a park-like setting with close proximity to the I-55 transportation corridor and a deep and qualified labor pool from which to draw potential workforce,” states the release.
The company also cited the “pro-business” environment in DeSoto County and Horn Lake.
The buildings will accommodate companies wanting 85,000 to more than 1.5 million square feet.
At build-out, the business/logistics park will have five buildings comprising more than 2.5 million square feet total, the release states.
Of the first two buildings being erected this year, the larger, Building A1 can be expanded up to 1.5 million square feet with 36-foot-high ceilings, spaces for 98 trailers (expandable to 175), and 342 automobiles.
Building B will have 32-foot-high ceilings, 80 trailer spaces and 270 auto parking spaces.
The development is Core5’s first in the Memphis market.
Chief executive Tim Gunter said in the release, “We are pleased to enter Memphis in what we believe is one of the finest properties within the greater Memphis industrial market.” He is the former chief executive of IDI, which has developed industrial sites in Memphis for years.
Lisa Ward, Core5’s senior vice president and managing director, said after studying possible Memphis-area sites and talking to area employers “it was clear that the location of DeSoto 55 Logistics Center offered superior access not only to highway and logistics infrastructure but also to a large, qualified labor pool from which to attract the workforce — two key factors considered by logistics operators.”
The company’s release also quoted Jim Flanagan, president of DeSoto County Economic Development Council, as saying, “The DeSoto Council is encouraged that a company of the professional stature and impeccable reputation of Core5 would select our county and the City of Horn Lake as their latest industrial development venture in the establishment of the DeSoto 55 Logistics Center.
“The Core 5 partnership that will be achieved with the local and state officials will ensure that our area continues to win the top supply chain and logistics
cated he had no explanation for the economics of BioLife’s investment.
Interstate Companies operates 23 plasma donation centers and nine whole-blood collection facilities. Interstate’s newest plasma donor center will be in Mendenhall Square shopping center, which contrasts sharply to the BioLife site. The Hickory Hill/Fox Meadows strip center anchors the junction of Mendenhall and Winchester, where vacant retail property and disinvestment has left some properties blighted.
BioLife is a division of Shire, a biotechnology company focused on rare diseases and highly specialized medical conditions. Asked what BioLife will do at its Memphis site, Shire spokeswoman Molly Poarch said by email that the company “is an industry leader in the collection of high quality plasma that is processed into life-saving plasma-based therapies. BioLife operates and maintains numerous state-of-theart plasma collection facilities throughout the United States.”
The BioLife website lists 91 plasma collection facilities in 25 states. The only other BioLife center in Tennessee is under construction in the affluent Nashville suburb of Mt. Juliet, where planning officials were a bit surprised by the newcomer. That plasma donor center, rising near a Walmart, Lowe’s and new car dealership, is to open in September.
“They didn’t come in with a lot of information about their business model,” Mt. Juliet planning director Bo Logan said. “Everybody that I work with at the city is wondering about.”
When an architect for BioLife appeared before a Mt. Juliet planning board last spring, one of the board members joked that he recalled plasma donor centers from his time as a college student, a video recording of the meeting shows. The architect was asked what demographic data BioLife considered when choosing to build in Mt. Juliet. The architect responded he did not know.
Each of the BioLife facilities employs 50 to 70 people, Poarch said. In addition to the initial $7.5 million investment, BioLife pays $3 million a year to customers who donate plasma. Technically, the customers are being reimbursed for their time, not being paid for their plasma.
Still, the mercenary aspect — the selling of a body fluid or the time it took to give it — has contributed to an image that the industry has worked to change.
That poor image existed until the 1970s and 1980s, said Patrick Robert. He is president of Marketing Research Bureau, which conducts market studies on blood and plasma.
“Not today, but in the past it was very poor because plasma was donated by individuals of low means and for this reason plasma centers were located near bus stations, for example, or areas that were not very nice,” Robert said.
Spurred by the trade association Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association, the plasma collection industry “has tried very hard to brighten and change the image of plasma and plasma donation,” Robert said.
Even though its customers are paid for their time, the industry frames the donations as a civic contribution that benefits patients suffering from rare diseases and blood-related conditions.
“It’s actually a very laudable gesture to donate plasma, just as it is to donate blood,” Robert said.
“I agree it’s a little bit challenging and yes, in the old times it was simple to put plasma centers where there was poverty,” Robert said. “But (now) the companies try to put the centers in affluent localities in order to attract everybody, not only low income people.”