2006-09-04 Pallet Maker Takes 171,000 SF at Riverview (By Natalie Keith)

Orlando-based CHEP USA has leased 171,600 sf at Building 400 of Riverview Distribution Center. The property is at 5885 Fulton Industrial Blvd.

Greg Lance, of Equis Corp., represented the tenant in the transaction. Bronson Smith, of Republic Property, represented the landlord. With the lease, the 265,200-sf Building 400 is 65% occupied with 93,600 sf still available for lease.

Smith tells GlobeSt.com that CHEP USA, which manufactures pallets, plans to relocate operations from a building in McDonough and will occupy the space in Oct. 15. The company will use the space mainly for the storage and distribution of pallets. “We were able to get aggressive enough on the lease rate so that we were able to meet their needs,” Smith says.

Smith added that building’s location was another factor behind the lease. The building is located in the city’s Fulton Industrial submarket and is near Interstates 75, 85, 20 and 285 and the Hartsfield Jackson International Airport.

Riverview Distribution Center, a 1.3-million-sf master planned industrial/distribution center at Camp Creek Parkway and Fulton Industrial Boulevard, is a joint venture of locally based Republic Property Co. and Dallas-based Granite Properties. Building 400 was completed in October. There are plans for three other buildings at the site, two more front-load buildings, including the 201,500-sf Building 100 and the 253,500-sf Building 200. There are also plans to build a cross-dock building, the 572,000-sf Building 300. Building features in the center include 32-ft clear height ceilings, 140-ft truck courts and an ESFR fire protection system. “We are entertaining some build-to-suit opportunities, but may move forward with construction of Building 100 on a speculative basis,” Smith says.
CHEP Highly Commended at Endeavour Awards

CHEP has received a Highly Commended award in the Technology Application category at the manufacturing industry’s premier awards program - the 2006 Manufacturers’ Monthly Endeavour Awards.

The award was presented at a gala breakfast, held in the Imax theatre at Darling Harbour, on August 31.

The global leader in pallet and container pooling equipment, CHEP received the nomination for its innovative customer replenishment planning project called the CHEP Automotive Logistics Management system (CALM).

James Meares, vice president, automotive services, CHEP Asia-Pacific, said the award recognised CHEP’s forward-thinking approach to business.

“Our automotive Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) customers are facing greater challenges managing their global supply chains, with increased transit times and complexity, while still trying to minimise costs,” said Mr Meares.

“CALM has been developed and designed to tailor to the specific needs of OEM customers. It helps them to manage their complex automotive supply chains by translating their packaging needs into returnable packaging solutions.

“This saves our customers time by eliminating the need to manually order from CHEP, allowing them to focus more on their own businesses,” he said.

CALM is the first system within CHEP to use customer forecasts instead of historical data for global supply chain planning.

Other customer benefits provided by the system include visibility of packaging deliveries to the customer’s preferred location; pre-determined calculation of optimal load configurations; and collaborative planning and forecasting to determine the customer’s optimal supply chain requirements.

CALM was developed in collaboration with CHEP’s industry partners Manugistics and CAP Gemini.

“We are delighted by this acknowledgement and believe we can add value to our many customers beyond the automotive industry, helping them to make their supply chains leaner and more responsive,” Howard Wigham, President, CHEP.