Premier Airport Park to contain 1.87 million square feet

Principal Real Estate Investors, an Iowa company that manages in excess of $79 billion in property globally, has begun developing a 225-acre industrial park in Fort Myers.

Premier Airport Park, which will contain 1.875 million square feet at build out, is being described as the first Class A development of its kind and size in Lee County.

It also will be the largest speculative distribution center developed in Southwest Florida in the past decade.

Dan Miller, executive managing director of industrial services with commercial real estate brokerage firm Colliers International Southwest Florida, says the project with 32-foot-clear ceiling heights, ESFR sprinkler systems, ample truck courts and other features will provide space currently lacking in the region.

“Principal has developed and owns similar product around the Miami airport and in other areas with high barriers to entry,” says Miller, who is marketing the property for lease along with Colliers Director of Industrial Services Fred Kolb.

“Because they have developed so much of this space and have expertise in it, their projects tend to be more refined,” Miller adds. “They understand first hand and better than most developers what the needs of the marketplace and its tenants are.”

Principal, which acquired the land on Premier Airport Parkway near the Southwest Florida International Airport and Interstate 75 in 2008, plans to complete an initial 105,000-square-foot building in its park in the final quarter of this year.

The roughly $200 million project, which is located within a three-hour drive of about 18 million people, is capable of building a structure of 600,000 square feet or more.

Miller says, too, that he expects Premier Airport Park to appeal to manufacturers as well as distributors, and “revolutionize” so-called “last mile delivery” in the region.