After redeveloping a pair of former industrial buildings on the former Hallmark campus in Enfield, Winstanley Enterprises is moving ahead with an 815,000-square-foot distribution center. Image courtesy of Winstanley Enterprises and CI Design
Hallmark’s closure of its 1 million-square-foot Enfield distribution center in 2015 set off alarms about the town’s chances of replacing the greeting card manufacturer as a major taxpayer and corporate presence.
Developer Adam Winstanley saw an opportunity to tap into growth of the central Connecticut warehouse and distribution market, which has accelerated amid growing demand for e-commerce. After buying the 324-acre property for $12 million in 2016 and leasing up a portion of the former Hallmark buildings, Concord, Massachusetts-based Winstanley Enterprises is pursuing approvals for the latest in a series of its e-commerce projects in the Interstate 91 corridor. The $120 million project would create a 815,000-square-foot distribution center on a rear portion of the property at 35 Bacon Road, which was never developed by Hallmark.
“I’ve never met a company that didn’t think they were going to be the next IBM. At a lot of these campuses, they acquire a lot of extra land and think they may need it for future expansion,” Winstanley said.
Winstanley Enterprises also is developing a major biotech project in New Haven, where Yale School of Medicine and Arvinis Inc. have leased a combined 285,000 square feet at the 101 College St. tower which broke ground in July.
But it’s been most active in the central Connecticut distribution market, where proximity to Bradley International Airport and highway connections to population centers is generating strong demand for distribution space.
The firm’s industrial portfolio in Enfield alone includes a 500,000 square-foot Advanced Auto Parts distribution center, a 600,000-square-foot office-warehouse/distribution facility leased to Lego and Coca-Cola Bottling, and a 500,000-square-foot warehouse under construction on North Maple Street that will be occupied by Agri-Mark dairy products and lab equipment supplier Eppendorf.
In the first phase of the Hallmark redevelopment, Winstanley updated the sprawling former Hallmark buildings spanning 700,000 and 360,000 square feet. A partial demolition of the smaller rear building, previously used for manufacturing, reduced the height from 80 to 33 feet while installing a new roof and column grids for a warehouse layout. The larger facility received a complete overhaul including new LED lighting, fire safety systems and shipping docks. The $41-million investment paid off with three tenants committing to the entire available space.
Winstanley is subdividing the property for the next phase of the redevelopment, an 815,000-square-foot distribution facility on an 181-acre parcel. Designed by architects CI Design of Boston, the building would include 33-foot clear heights and 50-by-50-foot column spacing.
The leasing plan breaks the building up into two spaces spanning 500,000 and 315,000 square feet. Prospective tenants already have signed letters of intent for the entire property through Winstanley’s exclusive brokers, John Reed and Christopher Metcalfe from CBRE’s Hartford office, Winstanley said.
The property is zoned for industrial uses, but requires a site plan approval from the Enfield Planning and Zoning Board which will begin its review Feb. 10.
The layout of the buildings will preserve a buffer of trees between the building and nearby residences.
“The building is undersized for the amount of land we have,” Winstanley said. “Other tenants have requested as much as 1.2 million square feet, but what I like about 815,000 square feet is it allows us a lot of extra land we plan on placing into conservation.”
