Representing both the seller, Bekaert Corporation, and the buyer, Tower Investments, Binswanger is pleased to announce the sale of a 639,000 sq. ft., one-story building on 63 acres located at One Bekaert Road in Dyersburg, Tennessee.

 

Tower Investments of Woodland, California is a real estate investment and development company specializing in adaptive reuse development, planning and design, construction management, leasing and property management.

 

After purchasing the property, Tower Investments relisted the facility with Binswanger for sale or lease.

 

"From an adaptive reuse perspective, this property is a gem due to its prime location and solid infrastructure," said David Marks, Senior Vice President of Tower Investments, who negotiated the deal on Tower's behalf. "The more we researched the facility and the area, the clearer the decision became."

An old farm house rots away at the main intersection in town, council members meet in a trailer and dining choices come down to Joe's Grille and the Wagon Wheel Eatery.

 

Not the description you would expect for one of the Indianapolis area's growth hot spots: the crossroads town of McCordsville, long seen as too rural and distant for developers to bother with.

 

Not so now.

 

"I wonder on a daily basis what's going on around us," said Jenny Adams, waitress-turned-owner of the Wagon Wheel. "We try to keep up (on new projects) with construction workers who come in here."

 

Suburban sprawl not only is lapping up against McCordsville's farmland, but turning it into tract subdivisions, three newly opened retail centers, a coming Meijer department store, and one of the largest mixed-use developments ever planned in Hancock County.

A developer envisions a bioscience park on an elk farm along Hwy. 52 near Pine Island. All it needs now are state backing and tenants.

 

Can an elk farm ignite a biotech boom in southern Minnesota?

 

Tower Investments, a California-based real estate investment firm, is planning an ambitious 1.7 million-square-foot biotech research and manufacturing facility on an elk farm off Hwy. 52 near Pine Island, about 15 minutes north of Rochester. Construction of the bioscience park, the first of its kind in Minnesota, is scheduled to begin in mid-2008.

 

Tower executives and state and local officials say such a facility, part of a massive multiuse development called Elk Run, could help establish a biotech corridor along Hwy. 52, which connects the Mayo Clinic, the University of Minnesota Rochester, and IBM Life Sciences research and development labs with the U's Twin Cities campus and the major medical companies in the metro area.

Tower Investments LLC is targeting what it sees as a growing market - abandoned or aging factories ripe to be converter to distribution centers.

 

The investment and development firm, based in Woodland, Calif., with an office in Nashville, owns more than 9 million square feet of industrial property throughout the United States.

 

The properties are mainly in secondary and tertiary markets and generally range from 300,000 to 1 million square feet.

 

Tower officials say there is a national shift from manufacturing to distribution operations and identified a new use for older facilities in the current market.

 

"With the shift toward overseas manufacturing, large-scale industrial facilities are no longer in great demand in the United States, and many have gone into disrepair," says Matt Marks, a senior vice president with Tower. "At the same time, there is a rising need for warehouse and distribution space for smaller businesses that do not have the resources to build out their own facilities."

 

Alex Marks believes so much in Williamson County, he moved there even though his company headquarters stayed in California.

 

Marks is senior vice president of Tower Investments, LLC, based in Woodland, CA.

 

Marks, a Franklin resident, has helped his family business leave a noticeable mark on Williamson County by developing three equestrian communities in Leipers Fork, a total of 75 homes on 1,021 acres.

 

Since moving to Williamson County in 2006 from Woodland, Marks says the quality of life and the friends he made inspired him to establish his home in Franklin.

 

"It's about friendship versus social status," says Marks, a graduate of the University of Southern California.

A metals processing site with a complicated ownership structure and a California family bullish on Middle Tennessee are just two players in a riverfront development puzzle

Talk to anyone involved in Nashville city planning efforts about the city's future, and chances are they'll mention redeveloping the downtown Cumberland Riverfront. Former mayor Bill Purcell allocated $8 million in the 2007-2008 fiscal year budget for Metro to begin a $40 million, five-year project that will create 120 acres of parkland and about 20 public riverfront features along both sides of the river between the Woodland Street Bridge and the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge. A longer term, 15- to 20-year plan includes the bolder prospect of carving a channel along the interstate loop in the Cumberland's East bank to create an island encompassing LP Field.

 

It's a project that generates a great deal of excitement for the city, and with it comes that oft-discussed matter of the PSC Metals site-a metal recycling facility on the East bank of the Cumberland that's a coveted piece in the riverfront development puzzle.

 

"Many people agree that's not the highest and best use of that property, and as we build out the public and recreational features downtown [in phase one of the project], we'll be building right up to the metals site," says Chris Koster, the city's special project manager for the riverfront redevelopment project. "That transformation will increase opportunities available on that site."

MILTON -- Tower Investments, a multi-state real estate investment and development company, has purchased a nearly 250,000-square-foot industrial facility at 386 James River Turnpike. SuperValu will remain in the building, which it will now lease from Tower Investments.

 

The facility was built about 30 years ago by American Real Estate Holding Co. and was leased as a dry goods and cold storage distribution facility to SuperValu, a grocery retail chain headquartered in Minneapolis.

 

"Our purchase was centered on a quality building, with a great tenant in a strategic location," Seth Curran, a project manager with Tower Investments, said in a press release. "Tower welcomes the opportunity to help Milton capitalize on its location and workforce to continue to strengthen the area's economy."

Another major commercial developer has its eyes set on McCordsville.

 

The Tow Council heard an informal rezoning proposal Tuesday, September 11, for McCord Square, a 90-acre "lifestyle center" located near the intersection of CR 600 West and Broadway Street.

 

Commercial realty executive Kurt Mathewson, representing developer Tower Investments of California, said that project will create a pedestrian-friendly complex similar to Carmel's Clay terrace Mall. It will include a mix of retail, restaurants and commercial office uses.

 

The development "will help update the town," Mathewson said, "while still maintaining the qualities that people who live in McCordsville would like to maintain."

A ranching family with deep roots in the cattle country of Central California is becoming influential in Middle Tennessee.

 

Not only is the Marks family a major player in the high-density, rapid-growth Monopoly board of downtown Nashville development, it's wielding an impact in the idyllic community of Leipers Fork in Williamson County.

 

The Marks, via their development company Tower Investments, are building three sprawling equestrian-themed subdivisions in the rustic unincorporated area - a spot beloved by residents, preservationists, horse lovers, artists, farmers and old-timers.

 

Leipers Fork residents are known for being fiercely protective of the natural beauty of the area and area Realtor Ray Helmsworth says the family is getting a warm reception.

 

"They are really passionate about maintaining the natural beauty of the area," Helmsworth says.