Frontage on both interstates is what sells flex space in Las Cruces, and NMSU's Arrowhead Park advertises direct visual exposure to I-10 and I-25, build-to-suit capability with several development partners, and a location in the Dona Ana County Free Trade Zone Area. Flex and light industrial buildings are small-bay, mixed-use structures with some office, some warehouse and some light assembly under one roof. We build them as speculative shells, as build-to-suit buildings for a single user, and as multi-tenant light manufacturing and flex industrial projects.
The important decisions are made at the start. Bay width, clear height, dock and grade-level door mix, parking count and electrical service determine who can lease the building. A 24 foot clear with one dock door per two bays and 400 amp service per bay suits a different tenant than a 30 foot clear with a dock per bay. We help owners choose a program that a broad range of tenants can use, because the first tenant is rarely the last.
Because the buildings are small, the site cost per square foot is high relative to a large warehouse. Parking, landscaping, stormwater and utility extension all weigh more heavily, and good site planning is where a flex developer makes or loses margin.
A flex shell is a pre-engineered metal building or a tilt-wall building with a slab on grade, an insulated roof, storefront or office glazing on the front, and overhead doors at the rear. Demising walls are rated and run to the roof deck, and utilities are stubbed to each bay so a tenant can connect without trenching through the slab.
We offer a range of finish levels, from a gray shell to a warm shell with restrooms, a basic office and HVAC, to a full tenant buildout. Our approach is to finish enough that the first tenant can move in quickly, but not so much that the space has to be demolished to suit a different user.
Typical tenants include contractors with a showroom and shop, equipment and parts distributors, light assemblers, laboratories, and service businesses supporting aerospace and research. The Las Cruces area has a university with about $150 million a year in externally funded research and an airport with an aerospace focus, and companies in both orbits often want a few thousand square feet with high power and a clean floor.
Larger users, including those in logistics and distribution, move into a warehouse building or a manufacturing plant. We design flex buildings so that two or three adjacent bays can be combined for a tenant that grows, by placing the demising walls with removal in mind and sizing the electrical service for the combined load.
The City of Las Cruces Innovation and Industrial Park at the I-10 and I-25 junction lists more than 400 acres shovel ready and another 500 available for lease or purchase, and Arrowhead Park covers 224 acres at the southern end of the NMSU campus between the two interstates. A federal grant of $1.5 million funded infrastructure there, including widening Arrowhead Drive from two lanes to four, completing the wastewater system and street lighting.
That public infrastructure is why flex projects at these sites can proceed without a long utility extension. We confirm what is already in the ground, and anything that is not becomes part of our site utilities package scope. Exit 144 on I-10 leads directly to the start of I-25, which puts both sites on the major truck routes.
Owners often compare flex buildings by the square foot, but a better measure is the cost per leasable bay. The drivers are the number of doors, the electrical service size, the HVAC for the office portion, the restroom count and the glazing. Adding a restroom to each bay adds plumbing and fixtures, and adding a dock door adds a pit or leveler and a section of reinforced concrete.
The site is a second driver. Parking ratios for office-heavy tenants are higher than for warehouse-heavy ones, and the stormwater system has to handle the roof and paving runoff. We price the building and the site together so a developer sees the real cost per bay before committing to the parcel.
For a build-to-suit owner we begin with the operating plan: processes, equipment, truck traffic, staffing and growth. We design the building around it and use industrial design-build so one team carries the design, the pricing and the construction. That structure shortens the schedule because the design is priced as it develops.
For a speculative developer we start with the tenant base. We ask who the likely leasing prospects are, and we propose a bay mix and a delivery schedule that can capture them. Pre-leasing is often the deciding factor in financing, and a building that can be delivered on a firm date makes pre-leasing easier.
Send the target bay size, door mix and parcel, and we will return a cost per bay and a delivery schedule. Call or use the form.
Most flex buildings run 20 to 28 feet clear. Higher clear heights serve light warehousing and racking, while lower ones suit office and showroom tenants at a lower cost. We usually recommend 24 to 28 feet clear because it keeps the leasing pool wide.
A common starting point is 200 to 400 amps of three-phase service per bay, with room to upgrade for tenants with machinery. We stub a conduit path for the upgrade so the tenant is not trenching through a finished slab.
Yes. We build a first phase of bays, with the utility trunks and parking sized for the full buildout, and add later phases as leases are signed. The shell design allows for an end wall that can be removed or extended.
We can build in either. Arrowhead Park is a university research park with its own development partners and requirements, and the city park is zoned for industrial use. We confirm the process and the approvals for the specific parcel before pricing.
A shell with several bays can often be finished in the period it takes to receive the building package and place the concrete, which is typically several months. The long-lead items are the metal frame or panels, overhead doors and electrical gear, and we order them during permitting.