Trammell Crow breaks ground on 233,335-square-foot Charlotte spec industrial project

Trammell Crow has broken ground on Caldwell Commerce Center, a 233,335-square-foot speculative industrial project in Charlotte with no tenant signed and a CBRE Japan-led investor group carrying the land through lease-up, a pairing of development capability and patient capital that has become the firm's default answer to frozen construction starts. The two rear-load buildings at 6122 and 6125 Caldwell Park Drive sit on 24 acres and are scheduled for delivery by July 2027.

The equity partnership puts a freight and warehousing operator among the owners even though Mitsubishi Logistics has not said whether it will occupy any of the space. Legacy Real Estate Advisors represented the seller, and the land price remains undisclosed—the missing basis against which every lease rate will eventually be measured.

The two buildings measure 106,175 and 127,160 square feet, each with 32-foot clear heights and build-to-suit office space, on an infill site with quick access to Interstate 485 and I-85 and a labor pool the report calls one of the region's strongest. CBRE's Bryan Crutcher and Alek Salfia are leasing the project; Landmark Builders is the general contractor, with Seamon Whiteside as civil engineer and 9G Studio as architect.

Trammell Crow is letting a Japan-led consortium hold the land through absorption rather than selling to owner-occupants, the posture it took in August when Trammell Crow and Daiwa House broke ground on a speculative second phase in Fort Bend County, Texas, pushing that venture past 2 million square feet after its first phase sold to users.

With construction starts frozen, the build-over-buy bet is that entitled, delivered space will command scarcity pricing around 2028. A July 2027 delivery arrives a year ahead of that window, making Charlotte a leasing wager rather than a scarcity wager—on a submarket with two interstate approaches and a labor pool the report rates highly.

Crutcher and Salfia have until the middle of 2027 to turn 233,335 square feet of shell into rent rolls, and the venture's return will be whatever rate they clear against a land basis that has not been disclosed.