VanTrust Real Estate, LLC (VanTrust) announced a global transport and logistics company will occupy its 432,085-square-foot speculative building inside North Laredo Industrial Park. The facility is adjacent to Interstate 35 and the Port of Laredo, Texas’ busiest commercial land port on the United States-Mexico border.
Building 1 at 15308 Fatima Road is VanTrust’s first deal in Laredo and the first of multiple buildings the full-service real estate development company will add to the North Laredo Industrial Park. VanTrust worked with the tenant to construct an additional 17,000 square feet for office space. The site also includes 112 dock positions, 3 drive-in doors and 224 trailer storage spaces.
“We’re excited to expand our Texas footprint within this key market for global trade,” said Bill Baumgardner, executive vice president of development for VanTrust Real Estate. “We’re positioned to accommodate users of any size with next-generation industrial facilities. Laredo offers one-of-a-kind accessibility to Mexico by both road and rail, and companies seeking supply chain efficiencies are drawn to the area’s strong labor force.”
According to CBRE, the Port of Laredo is the third largest port in the nation by total annual trade value. The city brought in more than $268 billion in trade with Mexico in 2022, up by more than 20% from 2021. Over the last five years, the industrial real estate supply in Laredo — comprised of buildings that are 20,000 square feet or more — has grown to 36 million square feet, representing a 10% increase from its previous total.
Location is Laredo’s biggest asset. The Laredo industrial market is served by the Kansas City Southern Railway and Union Pacific Railroad, which provide direct access to Mexico. Laredo also has two international bridges for commercial vehicles. The World Trade Bridge, alone, accommodates an average of more than 15,000 trucks per day. Industrial users are within 160 miles of San Antonio, Corpus Christi, McAllen and the major automobile manufacturing hub in Monterrey, Mexico.
VanTrust has experienced rapid growth since its inception in 2010. The full-service real estate development firm has developed more than 61 million square feet of office, industrial, multifamily, mixed-used, science + technology and hospitality projects nationwide.
Kristina Madayag of KBC Advisors and Carlo Molano of Forum Commercial Real Estate represented the tenant. Joshua Aguilar and Rob Burlingame from CBRE represented VanTrust.