In a continued flurry of market activity, Liberty Property Trust is breaking ground on two new industrial buildings totaling 700K SF at Port Crossing Commerce Center. The first, a 600K SF building, will be at 16th and Wharton Weems, while the second will be a 104K SF building along Highway 146.

Liberty Property Trust's Port Crossing Commerce Center has seen success despite the oil slump. During the last nine months, Liberty has renewed leases with two major tenants, each for more than 200K SF, and kept its occupancy levels in the park at 100%.

The company recently inked a major full-building lease with MRC Global for its newly completed 415K SF at 1801 South 16th St. The project will serve as MRC’s largest distribution center, as well as its center for global operations with an additional 77K SF of office space.

Liberty Property Trust also completed a land sale along Highway 146, where a hotel is planned.

“While we still have 50 [to] 60 acres available to develop, we are ahead of schedule in terms of our land take-down,” Vice President Hans Brindley said. “We thought we would be looking at a five-plus year horizon for completing the park, but now it appears we could complete the park much more quickly.”