Hitachi Powering Into Braselton
A former Home Depot facility is about to get a dose of power tools. Hitachi Koki USA is moving its North American HQ and distribution facility to Braselton Distribution Center One, a 540k SF facility in Jackson County that's owned by Hardie Real Estate Group. Hardie—headed by Eben Hardie—developed the facility on spec in 2004 and leased it to Home Depot a year later. Hitachi will consolidate operations from various parts of Atlanta—including its current HQ at 3950 Steve Reynolds Blvd (above) and distribution centers in Pendergrass and Powder Springs—later this year, says Hitachi's Benjie Hopkins. (An all-in-one facility for all-in-one power tools.) JLL's Ray Dankberg and Andrew Lewis repped Hitachi.
Benjie tells us part of the Hitachi consolidation includes moving a portion of its Valencia, Calif.-based operations to Atlanta. He says the firm will downsize its West Coast facility to around 40k SF from its current 260k SF, with “the balance moving here.”' He says part of the reason it chose Braselton is because the tool maker has been around in Jackson County doing business for more than 15 years.
Hardie likely won't be landlord much longer for Braselton DC One, which is losing Home Depot as its tenant for the new Big Orange facility in Henry County. Sources tell us that with the 500k SF-plus Hitachi lease in tow, Eben is in talks to sell his facility to Hillwood Investment Properties, the Ross Perot Jr.-owned company that's been buying up Atlanta industrial properties for a few years. We reached out to Hillwood acquisition head Tom Fishman (above), but did not hear back as of press time.
