Hines and Key Group announce 3msf industrial aerospace and defense hub on Florida’s space coast
Author: Kali Persallo, Institutional Real Estate, Inc.
Hines, in partnership with Titusville-based Key Group, announced Space Coast Innovation Park, a 3 million-square-foot project that will feature three phases of class A industrial product situated across 450 acres in the heart of Florida’s Space Coast in Brevard County. The state-of-the-art project will be located along Grissom Parkway and Perimeter Road, within the boundaries of Space Coast Regional Airport’s (TIX) federally licensed Exploration Spaceport in Titusville.
Space Coast Innovation Park will be developed in three phases. Phase I, which comprises three rear-load industrial buildings totaling more than 639,000 square feet across 50 acres, is projected to break ground in Q1/2024. Phase II will include two industrial buildings spanning nearly 466,000 square feet across 50 acres. Phase III will feature a mixed-use development spanning 350 acres, the details of which will be announced at a future date.
“As the rapid commercialization and privatization of the aerospace industry continues, with the space economy expected to generate more than $1 trillion in annual sales by 2040, we believe now is the perfect time to create a best-in-class logistics hub for aerospace companies requiring more direct access to Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral than properties located further south can offer,” said Ryan Wood, managing director at Hines. “As one of the first groups to deliver a modern industrial park to prospective aerospace and defense tenants seeking to enter or expand their operations in North Brevard County, we look forward to partnering with Key Group to meet the critical logistics needs of Space Coast businesses.”
The Space Coast is the epicenter of Florida’s growing space industry and is home to one of the nation’s largest concentrations of aerospace, defense and technology employers, including Blue Origin, SpaceX, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, L3 Harris and Amazon, among many others. Moreover, the U.S. Air Force recently selected Patrick Space Force Base on the Florida Space Coast as its preferred headquarters location for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Training and Readiness Command operations. The area’s business-friendly environment and proximity to major space, air, sea, road and rail corridors has made it a preferred destination for numerous aspects of space technology, including rocket and spacecraft design, development and manufacturing. Situated 10 miles from the Kennedy Space Center’s vehicle assembly building and offering aerospace and defense firms direct access from Interstate 95 to SR-407, with a direct connection to the newly expanded NASA Causeway Bridge, Space Coast Innovation Park is ideally positioned to accommodate the area’s strong demand for highly specialized industrial space requiring payload assembly and transport to Kennedy Space Center launch pads.
“We will collectively work with aerospace tenants to provide institutional grade-facilities and tap into the exceptional resources that the Exploration Spaceport has to offer, including incentives from Space Florida, the North Brevard Economic Development Zone and the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast,” said Kathleen Yonce, CEO at Key Group. “The Exploration Spaceport Master plan under way will offer multimodal payload transport and is located within Port Canaveral’s Foreign Trade Zone.”