Worldport at DIA
A $200 million cargo development
By John F. Infanger
January 2002
DENVER — Since it opened, the new Denver International Airport has had a need for more cargo. An $80 million complex currently underway is getting development activity started again.
"Other than WorldPort, there just
is no footage available to lease. It’s just maxed out," explains
WorldPort partner William Prather, also of local real estate firm L.C.
Fulenwider, Inc., which he says sold 40 percent of the property that is
DIA to the airport.
His firm, in a public-private partnership
with the airport, is master lessor of two sites that will see by 2004
an $80 million, 500,000-sq.ft. cargo and distribution complex. New York
partners include Diversified Asset Management, an aviation development
firm, and PAMI, Inc., a Lehman Brothers, Inc., subsidiary.
Says Michael O. Carmichael of WorldPort
regarding the current economic climate, "With a capital development
project of this scale, you build through cycles. We’re getting the
lease rate we need for these buildings right now." The buildings
are two, soon to be finished, 90-sq.ft. facilities to be occupied by U.S.
Customs and postal sorting.
Officials are confident that they can then
begin building on spec, looking to attract integrators and forwarders
still doing business just east of the old DIA. According to Carmichael,
those are the majority of potential tenants.
WorldPort is paying for infrastructure development
for the two sites, including a half mile of taxiway, 420,000 square feet
of ramp, service roads, and utility relocations. The airport layout plan
calls for another DIA runway to run adjacent to the property.
