Real estate firm and developer to build the largest office park in Garner
A Garner business and a Raleigh developer announced plans this week to build an office park of a scale that will be a first for the growing Wake County town south of Raleigh.
The Eastern Wake Innovation Park, which will be 300,000 square feet when completed, will be built at the intersection of East Garner and Jones Sausage roads. Its location is just down the road from the coming Amazon fulfillment center and the White Oak Crossing shopping center, two of the town’s important economic centers.
Following the town council’s approval on Monday, Direct Distributors Inc. and Trustwell Property Group announced they will build the project out in three 100,000-square-foot buildings.
According to Jon Keener, managing partner at Trustwell, the land was already owned by Direct Distributors, a native company of Garner, and they sought to bring new, class A office space that the town was missing.
“Thankfully, Direct Distributors Inc. had the financial ability and dedication to the Garner community to build a new building, but many growing local companies did not and had to leave Garner to find space instead,” Keener said.
Based on the economic momentum from Amazon two blocks away and attention to the nearby shopping center, Keener said, Trustwell seized an opportunity to build an office park with added retail and restaurant space in a strategic location with access to I-40 and downtown Raleigh a 10-minute drive away.
“Add to that our ability to offer leasing rates substantially lower than Downtown, North or West Raleigh, along with buildings of equal or greater quality and convenience and we believe we are creating a truly unique and highly desirable location for all of the Triangle’s growing companies,” Keener said.
Keener said leasing negotiations are underway with potential tenants, and he expects them to be announced later this year. Based on current progress, construction of the first building may be finished next year, he said.
“It’s something Garner has never had, and it will change the way economic development prospects view us,” said the town’s economic development director, Joe Stallings, in a press release. “It will open up very promising opportunities for the recruitment of new businesses and the expansion of existing ones in Garner.”
The development’s location is a 22-acre site of undeveloped green space across from East Garner Middle School.
According to the most recent office market reports from commercial real estate firms JLL and Avison Young, there is currently no new office inventory in the southern Wake County area.
This story was originally published February 7, 2020 at 5:25 AM.
