First Industrial Realty Trust Inc. will immediately start construction of a253,722-square-foot facility on a 16-acre portion of the 99-acre James Business Park section it bought in 1998.

The $9.7 million James Distribution Center I is due to be completed byNovember 2000.

First Industrial’s Regional Director, Daniel P. Poulin added, “Our strategyfor this James Business Park project includes satisfying demand from users of high-end distribution and warehouse space while providing sorely-needed distribution product to the metro New Orleans market, which has not seen any speculative distribution facility development project in the past 14 years.””There’s always been a lot of interest in St. Charles Parish,” said CoreyFaucheux, the parish’s economic development director, adding more companies would relocate here if facilities were already available rather than having to build first.

“Nowadays, people want it yesterday,” Faucheux said. “We’re reallyexcited.”Carl E. Woodward has been hired as the project’s design-build contractor.First Industrial already owns 14 buildings totaling 508,868 square feet in the park.

The main attraction for First Industrial to James Business Park, Poulin said, is its proximity not only to New Orleans International Airport but also major highways such as Airline Highway and Interstates 310 and 10.

The superior school system and workforce of St. Charles Parish is anadditional draw.

Faucheux commented, “I guess the old adage is true – location, location, location.”James Business Park, first developed in the late 1970s, is the premier business park in the metro New Orleans area with more than 90 companies in 34 industrial, service-center and other facilities. Aesthetic integrityis controlled by protective covenants.

First Industrial operates and manages more than 74 million square feet of industrial facilities nationwide.

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