Napa Commerce Center first wine warehouse to start construction
Amid a thirst for warehouse space to accommodate brisk growth in sales of fine wines from Napa Valley and elsewhere in the North Coast, a Sacramento-based real estate developer plans to break ground on the first of seven such buildings in south Napa, set to offer nearly 400,000 square feet of storage.
The Pigman Companies plans for crews later this month to start preparing the site of the first, 81,656-square-foot building at the Napa Commerce Center development on nearly 34 acres at the southwest corner of the intersection of highways 12 and 29. Located in the industrial areas next to Napa County Airport and at the junction of one of Napa Valley’s main roadways and the now-wider Jamieson Canyon Road route to Solano County, the project has entitlements for seven light-industrial and flex buildings with 388,000 square feet of space.
“The development of Napa Commerce Center represents a unique opportunity to deliver a mixed-use business park designed to accommodate the needs of Napa’s world-renowned wine production, storage and distribution companies,” said Kris Pigman in a statement. “For companies that require a central Northern California location and all the modern industrial amenities imaginable, our project’s unsurpassed visibility and exposure, unfettered access, and inherent design flexibility will satisfy the Napa wine industry’s need for modern, energy-efficient buildings developed with deference to environmental sensitivity.”
The first structure, Building F, is set to have dock and grade-level truck-loading doors, 26-foot ceiling clear height for inventory racking and the latest fire sprinkler system. The space can be divided into units as small as about 20,000 square feet.
The other planned buildings are 9,000-, 31,000- and 34,000-square-foot flex buildings, which can be configured for office and warehouse space, and two more warehouses with 80,000 and 153,000 square feet each. Also part of the project is a service station with convenience store and car wash.
The Napa industrial-space market is probably the tightest it has ever been, according to Glen Dowling, part of the Cushman & Wakefield team marketing the project. The vacancy rate for such space in southern Napa Valley is about 2 percent.
“This does not include the 650,000 square feet of speculative warehouse building under construction in American Canyon, which will hit our inventory figures in the first quarter of 2016,” Dowling said.
Activity remains strong for various types of commercial space in the area, he said.
“Based on current demand for this type of project and virtual zero vacancy, the conditions are ideal for new construction,” Dowling said. Construction of more space at Napa Commerce Center could start next year, if demand continues at its current pace, he said.
Pigman’s planning for Napa Commerce Center has spanned several years. “My interest in the site and in Napa and confidence in the marketplace did not wane,” Pigman told the Business Journal a year ago.
Cushman & Wakefield agents Glen Dowling, Matt Bracco and Chris Neeb are marketing the project (dbrea.com/real-estate/view-property/napa-commerce-center).
