Duke Realty to Build Industrial Property in Valwood Park - Analyst Blog

In tune with its industrial portfolio strengthening efforts, Duke Realty Corp. (DRE) disclosed the proposed development of a property in Texas. This 93,000 square foot build-to-suit industrial facility will be built on 5.5 acres in Valwood Park in Farmers Branch.

This to-be-constructed building will be leased to Valdez Corporation and Advanced Spice & Trading. Valdez will occupy 37,900 square feet of space, while the remaining 55,100 square feet will be housed by Advanced Spice. Both the companies will shift their corporate headquarters to this new building.

As a matter of fact, along with the abovementioned construction site, Duke Realty also has an extra 217 acres of developable land across the Dallas metro area, which includes North Dallas, South Dallas and DFW Airport submarkets.

Strong demand for finest warehouse and distribution space in the region by the companies called for the new industrial development at Valwood Park. Also, Duke Realty's known expertise in providing best industrial properties in the Dallas-Fort Worth area justifies Valdez and Advanced Spice's decision to chose Duke Realty for building their headquarters.

Notably, Duke Realty currently has over 16.5 million square feet of industrial, office and healthcare properties under ownership or construction stage.  Moreover, this real estate investment trust (REIT) also has 3.5 million square feet and around 0.8 million square feet of land available for industrial and office developments, respectively.

Therefore, we expect Duke Realty's focus on key markets, improved operating portfolio performance and enhancement activities to drive growth, going forward. Alongside, the company's portfolio repositioning efforts, to strengthen its bulk industrial business in key markets, is encouraging given the improving fundamentals of the industrial market.

Duke Realty currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Investors interested in the REIT industry may also consider other stocks like Cousins Properties Inc. (CUZ), DCT Industrial Trust Inc. (DCT) and First Industrial Realty Trust Inc. (FR). All these stocks sport the same Zacks Rank as Duke Realty.