The Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport has inked a three-year, $840,000 deal with a Jackson, Mississippi-based tire wholesaler that will lease 56,000 square feet of space in two of the airport’s cargo buildings.
Hesselbein Tire Co., which has distribution locations throughout the south, has signed a three-year lease, with a three-year option thereafter, for $280,000 per year. Local manager Tony Maranto says the company, which is the largest distributor of Yokohama brand tires in the U.S. and also carries several other brands, leased the space because it has long wanted to increase its presence in the growing Baton Rouge market.
“It’s a huge market and there is a lot of tire business here,” says Maranto, who will manage the site and who also oversees Hesselbein’s other Louisiana distribution location near Houma. “Right now, we can only make deliveries (to local retailers) once a day and we get beat up a little by the competition on that. We feel if we can really break into the market, we’ll be able to offer a little more than what the others can offer.”
Maranto says the airport’s proximity to the area’s interstate system makes it a particularly attractive location for his company.
“Even though it’s in north Baton Rouge, it’s still convenient,” he says. “Plus, we still have a lot of dealers up in that part of town.”
The deal is advantageous for the airport, too, which leases space to industrial tenants at its cargo buildings and in its nearby industrial park as a way to raise revenues.
“This is a great deal for us,” says airport spokesman Jim Caldwell. “This is one more way we can meet our goal of being self-sustaining.”
The lease goes into effect immediately. Mark Hebert of Kurz & Hebert Commercial Real Estate brokered the lease.
—Stephanie Riegel
