CRG Announces 1-Million-Square-Foot Speculative Industrial Development in Atlanta’s I-75 South Submarket

Firm to develop The Cubes at River Park in the River Park E-Commerce Center, which will be the largest mixed-use development in the city’s metro area

ATLANTACRG, the real estate development and investment arm of Chicago-based Clayco, today announced the development of The Cubes at River Park, a 1,006,000-square-foot speculative industrial building in Butts County, Georgia, located in Atlanta’s Interstate 75 South submarket.

The 63.57-acre site is part of the proposed River Park E-Commerce Center, located 30 miles south of the city near Jackson, Georgia. The parcel has interstate frontage and immediate access to I-75. The project will be the first building in the park, which is slated to include more than 18 million square feet of Class A industrial space and e-commerce facilities and create more than 5,000 jobs. 

“We continue to see significant industrial demand for this submarket, so it was pivotal for us to identify a location that could support the type of super bulk users we work with all over the country,” said Mike Demperio, executive vice president and Southeast Region industrial leader for CRG. “This will be a best-in-class facility once completed, and it will give any major logistics user greater proximity to both the Port of Savannah and Florida than what’s currently available in the market.” 

Equity for the project is being provided by a joint venture between a private investment firm represented by Esmael Hill, managing principal of Atlanta-based the Net Lease Group, and CRG’s U.S. Logistics Fund II, which launched in March and will target $1.5 billion in new industrial facilities over the next three years. To date, CRG has broken ground on approximately 18 million square feet of The Cubes projects across the country – more than 10 million square feet of which has already been delivered. 

In the Atlanta area, CRG broke ground on a 562,650-square-foot speculative warehouse and leased it to a national e-commerce company at The Cubes at Bridgeport in Coweta County Georgia, in February, and sold a 1,002,150-square-foot e-commerce warehouse in the same industrial park in November 2020 to KKR. The firm additionally built The Cubes at Locust Grove, a 1,000,993 million-square-foot distribution center in Locust Grove, Georgia. 

The Cubes at River Park, located at the northeast corner of the intersection of State Route 16 and I-75 in Jackson, is fully entitled and graded, allowing speed-to-market for the new development. JLL’s Chris Tomasulo, Ryan Hoyt and Bennett Rudder will market the project. 

“We estimate current tenant demand for industrial space to be around 50 million square feet for metro Atlanta,” said Tomasulo, a senior managing director for JLL. “That’s the world we live in post-pandemic, and the supply chain is trying to keep pace. There are several tenants in the market looking with one million square foot requirements, so The Cubes at River Park will be a perfect match for those users based on its proximity to the city and the Port of Savannah.”

Clayco is the design-builder for the project and its subsidiary Lamar Johnson Collaborative is the architect. Construction on the building, expected to start in November, will be complete in third-quarter 2022. The design-build firm recently built a 1.2 million-square-foot distribution facility for Dollar General, located just across I-75 from the new project. 

“Projects like The Cubes at River Park are built on the strength of our vertically integrated platform,” said Shawn Clark, president at CRG. “We’re able to develop, design, build and finance opportunities like this quickly and with modern requirements to match needs of today’s premier e-commerce and logistics users. We have considerable experience in the Atlanta market, and Mike and his team will keep us aggressive as we find additional opportunities here.” 


About CRG

CRG is a privately held real estate development firm that has developed more than 9,000 acres of land and delivered over 200 million square feet of commercial, industrial, institutional and multifamily assets exceeding $12 billion in value. CRG leverages a powerful North American platform with local market expertise and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Columbus, Southern California, St. Louis and Philadelphia. CRG’s philosophy of developing for the future and anticipating the enhanced needs of next generation users led to the creation of its industrial brand, The Cubes, and its multifamily brand, Chapter. For more information, visit CRG’s website at realcrg.com.

About The Cubes

The Cubes is a North American industrial brand owned and developed by CRG. The Cubes represents CRG’s philosophy of developing for the future and anticipating the enhanced needs of tomorrow’s modern industrial user. The Cubes are designed with an emphasis on sustainability, and implement state-of-the-art specifications, including maximum clear heights, dock doors and trailer storage to keep pace with the shift to consumer-centric logistic strategies. The Cubes are located on strategic sites that take into consideration both logistics and labor supply, always with the end user in mind. 

About Clayco

Clayco is a full-service, turnkey real estate development, master planning, architecture, engineering, and construction firm that safely delivers clients across North America the highest quality solutions on time, on budget, and above and beyond expectations. With $3.8 billion in revenue for 2020, Clayco specializes in the “art and science of building,” providing fast track, efficient solutions for industrial, commercial, institutional and residential related building projects. For more information visit claycorp.com.