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Dallas Morning News

May 17, 2024

Quiet Dallas firm best on Fort Worth area with new industrial project. Leon Capital group has even more in the pipeline than these two new buildings.

Leon Capital Group will begin building twospeculative industrial facilitiesin Tarrant County this summer, and it’s not the only project underway for the under-the-radar Dallas investment firm.

The MOVA South and North buildings — named for their frontage on Mossier Valley Road — will total more than 260,000 square feet combined with an estimated construction cost of approximately $18.88 million, according to filings with the state.

The industrial facilities, with 32-foot clear heights on about 17 acres, are located near Trinity Boulevard with proximity to Texas State Highways 183 and 360 in Fort Worth.

The buildings have been designed by GSR Andrade Architects, and commercial real estate services firm CBRE is marketing them.

Leon Capital Group focuses on investments in an array of industries beyond real estate including financial services, health care and technology.

Its industrial real estate platform remains active amid tough market conditions, providing products spanning a variety of sizes.

Leon Capital Group started the year with the completion of a more than 60,000-square-foot industrial space in Irving along Belt Line Road near the airport.

It’s underway with its Riverbend development in Fort Worth, which will start with two buildings. The remaining land among the more than 33 acres has been earmarked for either a build-to-suit tenant or a land sale.

The firm’s largest project in the pipeline is more than 635,000 square feet on about 63 acres in Mesquite. Upon completion, Mesquite Long Creek could comprise three buildings with heights ranging from 32 feet to 36 feet.

Recent deliveries combined with Leon Capital Group’s more imminent plans tally to more than 2 million square feet of industrial space.

Researchhas called for a smaller volume of industrial developmentin North Texas this year — though a slowdown in North Texas is relative.

Dallas-Fort Worth’s 2024 pipeline includes more than 33 million square feet of industrial development under construction.

While the figure lags behind the Phoenix area’s 42.5 million square feet, it greatly outstrips projects under construction in the nation’s other largest industrial markets, Chicago (13.2 million square feet) and the Inland Empire near Los Angeles (19.4 million square feet).

Whileindustrial development continues to decelerate, rents have reached a new high in the space, according to a first-quarter industrial market report from commercial real estate advisor and service provider Newmark.

The average asking rent shot up by 13.5% year over year, Newmark reported, and is expected to continue to increase as new, high-quality assets deliver.

The smaller amount of fresh square footage could result in supply constraints should economic conditions improve in the latter half of the year and into 2025, the firm said.