Chico's buys warehouse for future expansion

BUYER: Chico's Retail Services Inc. (principals: Brian Bitzer, Verna Gibson, Alexander David Dyer, Kent Kleeberger and Kevin Schockling), Fort Myers

SELLER: CDW 10995 Metro Parkway LLC

PROPERTY: 10995 Metro Parkway, Fort Myers,

PRICE: $2.5 million

PREVIOUS PRICE: $1.21 million, December 2007

LAW FIRM ON DEED: Robert D. Royston Jr. PA, Fort Myers

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Fort Myers retailer Chico's FAS Inc. purchased a 33,000-square-foot industrial warehouse building for $2.5 million.

The price equated to $76 per square foot.

The company plans to eventually use the property as part of its corporate headquarters.

“We've had a lot of expansion here to match our financial success,” says Robert Atkinson, vice president-investor relations of Chico's FAS Inc. “We've outgrown our campus on Metro [Parkway], so we acquired that building for our future growth needs.”

Atkinson says that it may be used in the near term to house employees as the company shifts departments to accommodate refurbishing the existing campus. Further, he says the purchase also reiterates that Chico's plans to keep Fort Myers as its corporate home.

Randal Mercer of CBRE represented the seller and Allan Fox of Commercial Property Management represented the buyer.