Duke Realty's New Flower Mound Facility Now 71% Preleased

Duke Realty Corporation (NYSE:DRE) recently announced that it will construct a new bulk distribution facility spanning 635,000 square feet in Flower Mound, a northern suburb of Fort Worth, TX. Notably, 71% of the facility has been preleased to Pittsburgh-based architectural paints and coatings supplier — PPG.

The remaining 185,000 square feet of area in the building will be available for lease. The building will feature 36′-clear height and cross-dock configuration. It is scheduled to be delivered in May 2019.

The bulk warehouse is situated at 1001 Lakeside Parkway in the company’s Lakeside Ranch business park. This industrial development is strategically located north of DFW International Airport and has convenient access to important highways. The new facility will strengthen Duke Realty’s foothold in North Texas, where the company has sizable in-fill industrial developments.

The company’s focus to expand its industrial portfolio in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is a strategic fit as the area has been witnessing robust demand for warehouse and distribution facilities, with nearly 20 million square feet of industrial space under construction. In fact, this industrial real estate investment trust has more than 15.8 million square feet of industrial properties in North Texas.

PPG will use the facility as a distribution center for its architectural paints and coatings operations in the Southwest U.S. The distribution facility will be the largest centre for PPG in the United States and Canada. Further, it will enable the company to grow its presence in the Fort Worth area, as well as complements Duke Realty’s new stores in the area.

Industrial real estate investment trusts (REIT) are indeed firing on all cylinders, supported by growth in e-commerce that has compelled companies to enhance, and renovate their distribution and production platforms. Furthermore, with the recovering economy and job market gains, as well as tax reforms, consumption levels are anticipated to remain elevated. Hence, demand for warehouse and logistics real estate is anticipated to shoot up. Given Duke Realty’s solid capacity to offer modern, bulk distribution properties, the company remains well poised to capitalize on this trend.

This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company has outperformed its industry in the past three months. Shares of Duke Realty have risen 13% compared with the industry’s gain of 6.1%.

Stocks Worth a Look

A few better-ranked stocks from the same space are Arbor Realty Trust (NYSE:ABR) , Lamar Advertising Company (NASDAQ:LAMR) and Prologis, Inc. (NYSE:PLD) . While Arbor Realty sports a Zacks Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), the other two stocks carry a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Arbor Realty Trust’s Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 FFO per share remained unchanged at $1.03 in a month’s time. Its shares have returned 12.9% over the past year.

Lamar’s FFO per share estimates for the current year have been revised 1.1% upward to $5.4 in a week’s time. Its shares have gained 2.3% in the past year.

Prologis’ FFO per share estimates for 2018 inched up 0.7% to $2.98 over the past month. Its shares have appreciated 16.8% in a year's time.

Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represents funds from operations (FFO) — a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.

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