A West Coast broker friend of mine contacted me about a high-end, slightly edgy, furniture firm, which was growing by leaps and bounds and needed to start thinking in terms of being less of a design studio -- and more a national player in the designer furniture business.
The firm, Design Within Reach, was a well-thought-of Bay Area firm with a global following, and it was evident from the beginning, that California was the wrong place for their distribution warehouse. The need, thought to be about 300,000sf, was more than a little dependent on shipments of furniture from Europe -- but still had a very western U.S. clientele.
My broker friend, who was with Colliers at the time, commissioned the Toronto branch to do an exhaustive study -- at their expense -- to determine the proper location within the continental U.S.
Cincinnati's Northern Kentucky Market proved to be "ground zero." so I went about the process of soliciting proposals from company-approved buildings and developers, all of which were thoroughly screened and vetted through multiple site visits and design approaches.
That September, leases were signed to occupy 216,000sf in a Duke Realty warehouse that was ideally suited for the project, and with the rapid growth, an iron-clad expansion option was secured.
Design Within Reach expanded into the remaining 100,000sf in their building, and the national distribution center of 316,000sf was off and running.
The firm, Design Within Reach, was a well-thought-of Bay Area firm with a global following, and it was evident from the beginning, that California was the wrong place for their distribution warehouse. The need, thought to be about 300,000sf, was more than a little dependent on shipments of furniture from Europe -- but still had a very western U.S. clientele.
My broker friend, who was with Colliers at the time, commissioned the Toronto branch to do an exhaustive study -- at their expense -- to determine the proper location within the continental U.S.
Cincinnati's Northern Kentucky Market proved to be "ground zero." so I went about the process of soliciting proposals from company-approved buildings and developers, all of which were thoroughly screened and vetted through multiple site visits and design approaches.
That September, leases were signed to occupy 216,000sf in a Duke Realty warehouse that was ideally suited for the project, and with the rapid growth, an iron-clad expansion option was secured.
Design Within Reach expanded into the remaining 100,000sf in their building, and the national distribution center of 316,000sf was off and running.