Summit Real Estate Group Enters Polk County with a Logistics Center in Lakeland
Summit Real Estate Group’s strategic push into high-growth areas led to its move into Polk County, where it’s launched one logistics center and has expectations to keep building.
Since its founding in 1995, Summit Real Estate Group has grown into a leading commercial real estate investment, development, and operating firm. The company has acquired and developed over 13 million square feet of commercial real estate. It currently has more than 6 million square feet of active development underway across 10+ U.S. markets.
Summit is backed by a team of 23 professionals and a senior leadership group with more than 150 years of combined experience. They are focused on creating enduring value in every project it undertakes. With a track record of performance and a forward-looking approach, Summit continues to grow its impact across the commercial real estate landscape.
Its mission is to “acquire, develop and manage institutional-grade real estate assets and deliver superior results for investors,” according to its website.
Relationships are key to the company’s success, said Maxwell J. Holter, Summit’s Managing Director of Investments.
“Relationships are the currency of our industry and have been the core of our growth,” he said. “We work hard to build long term, meaningful relationships everywhere we go, from tenants to brokers and even competitors.”
Summit’s capabilities include everything from project development and market research to due diligence, investor relations and more. These have helped make the company successful. It has a steady presence in the Southeast U.S. with continued plans to grow.
“We invest in high growth markets in the Southeastern United States. And, look for market characteristics that we think will lead to sustained growth, such as industry diversification, manufacturing, affordability and quality of life,” Holter said. “As well as having a keen focus on supply and demand fundamentals at the micro level.”
Choosing Polk County
Polk County’s location makes it a perfect place for Summit to invest.
“Polk County’s location in the middle of the state allows industrial occupiers to serve the entire state while capitalizing on affordability of both labor and occupancy costs relative to larger markets to the east and west,” Holter said.
More than 11 million people live within 90 miles of Polk County. This is part of the more than 23 million people who call Florida home. Strategic road and rail systems crisscross the county, making it easy to move product out of the area. Polk is also within 90 miles of two major seaports, three international airports and a Foreign Trade Zone.
Hamilton Logistics Center
The company’s 317,896-square-foot Hamilton Logistics Center sits on County Line Road property along the Polk and Hillsborough county lines. Its two buildings are flexible and can handle multiple tenants in manufacturing, distribution and industrial services companies.
“We signed our first lease with Dawn Foods for 48,000 square feet in Building 200 and have availability from 35,000 square feet up to a full building lease,” Holter said.
Summit worked with Tiger Contracting for site work on the Lakeland facility, among others.
The company has growth on its mind, locally and nationally.
“We are excited to continue to invest in the growth of Polk County and see it as a strategic long-term market for Summit,” Holter said. “Over the next five years, we expect to do over $2 billion in industrial development with continued focus on the Southeast.”
