Not one for procrastination, Liberty Property Trust has acquired 18 acres in Hanover for its fifth B-W Corridor warehouse. The idea is to start on site development so it's ready to go vertical in a year once Hanover Crossing, another Liberty Property that just broke ground, leases up. (Planning: something none of us learned in college.)

That's according to Liberty Property Trust's Lisa Sullivan, whom we snapped at last year's Bisnow Baltimore Industrial Summit with Tri-Star Brokerage's Sean Denny and Bill Holland. Bill brokered the acquisition. The just-purchased parcel, 7149 Ridge Rd, will become a 200k SF multi-tenant warehouse. Lisa tells us her team is tracking 3M SF of industrial tenants in search of space in the B-W Corridor, and once you remove the five looking for more than 200k SF, that leaves 1.1M SF of demand for multi-tenant space. (Who knew so many people in Baltimore needed to store stuff? Makes you appreciate your closet.)

The two buildings under way in Hanover Crossing, 7460 and 7462 New Ridge Rd (rendered above), will total 244k SF and will be ready to lease by the end of the year. Liberty expects lease-up to go well, considering its industrial portfolio is 95% leased and its B-W Corridor portfolio (7351 and 7361 Coca Cola Dr in Highpoint 100) is all spoken for. Lisa says Class-A industrial in the corridor is trading enough above replacement cost that it makes sense for Liberty Property to build. Intrigued by the investor and developer's proactive stance in the B-W Corridor, we invited Lisa to speak at Bisnow's 2nd Annual Future of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County event a week from today. More on that event below!