The Packaging Firms That Make Actual Boxes Also Fill Distribution Centers
Large retailers’ e-commerce operations are fueling Atlanta’s big-box industrial boom, but they’re not the only ones.
Companies that create boxes to ship online orders are filling warehouses and distribution centers, too. The latest case in point is JIT Packaging’s large lease at Gillem Logistics Center, located in Clayton County about 13 miles southeast of downtown Atlanta.
The Lebanon, Ohio-based company that creates custom boxes for automotive and e-commerce clients leased 373,996 square feet at Building 200. Stephen Bridges of commercial real estate brokerage firm Jones Lang LaSalle represented JIT in the lease.
In another lease with a packaging company, Andapak LLC of Morgan Hill, California, took 50,750 square feet at Gillem Logistic Park Building 300. With the two leases, the industrial park is packed tighter than a shipment from Amazon Prime at 100 percent occupancy.
Gillem Logistics Center on Anvil Block Road is a 1,168-acre master-planned industrial park on the site of the former U.S. Army’s Fort Gillem. It’s located in the heart of Atlanta’s southside, which has attracted several major fulfillment centers for large U.S. retailers, including American lifestyle brand Tory Burch and Ghiradelli Chocolate Co., a U.S. division of Swiss confectioner Lindt & Sprungil.
The industrial park is located in the Airport/North Clayton market, Atlanta’s largest based on inventory with 105 million square feet of space, according to CoStar data. Its proximity to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has played a key role in the market’s recent strength.
According to a CoStar report, “Absorption has been steady over the course of the current economic cycle. Vacancies pushed close to 16 percent in 2010, but have generally fallen since and are now well below the historical average.”
Airport/North Clayton’s industrial market vacancy rate is currently 7.6 percent, according to CoStar data.
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