Cromwell Brokers Transformer Manufacturing Lease

H. Bland Cromwell, CCIM, SIOR a partner of Cromwell Commercial Group and recognized veteran industrial specialist in Waco’s Commercial Real Estate Market, decades into his career continues to broker complex sales and leases bringing industrial leaders like MGMTransformers to one of the larger industrial spaces available in the Waco market.

MGM Transformers is expanding it’s operations into Texas after their recent acquisition of Waco based VanTranTransformers. The California based electrical transformer manufacturer signed a10-year lease as of July 2024, and site renovations immediately began anticipating production to commence at the facility in early 2025.

Cromwell has been representing the owners, a New Jersey based family, of this 460,000 SF building at 2700 TexasCentral Parkway for over 10 years now. Originally built as a distribution center for Sherwin Williams, the property had continued to house local tenants across various industries for overflow distribution space over the past decade.The current transition of this facility from distribution to manufacturing is anticipated to create an additional 700 jobs in the market over the next five years.

It's not only the size of the transaction and the value of the lease that are unique, but the speed in which this deal was done. “Deals of this size typically take a significant amount of time,” notes Bland Cromwell. Historically transactions of such size that he has been involved in include, Allergen, Caterpillar and Coca-Cola all of which taking the industry average of between one to two years to complete, and the MGMTransformers transaction was impressively negotiated in less than four months.

According to the Waco Chamber ofCommerce, this project represents a capital investment of more the $20 million and has recently been presented to the Waco City Council for economic development incentives. Mayor Jim Holmes expressed his excitement for this deal telling the Chamber “We value new businesses coming to Waco, as well as the existing business that have made this a great place to live and work…and we look forward to MGM being a part of the Waco community.”

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