Brian Eckel, co-founder and partner of Wilmington-based Cape Fear Commercial, has always been one for strategy.

So when he and his fellow real estate partner decided to pull dozens of industrial lots off the market in North Kerr Industrial Park more than five years ago, it was all part of a calculated plan to beef up industrial offerings in the area.

“We pulled everything off the market in October 2005 to let the demand build up,” Eckel said. “In March 2006, we decided to put all 44 lots in phase three of the [North Kerr] Industrial Park on the market.”

Within two hours of placing phase three up for sale, the real estate brokerage firm sold 41 lots.

“It was the peak of the market,” Eckel recalled. “There was a strong demand for this type of industrial space in the area and the buyers responded.”

That was then, this is now.

Despite a slight increase in retail commercial leasing across the greater Wilmington area, industrial and flex space leasing remains tough, including at the once hot North Kerr Industrial Park.

Cape Fear Commercial is in charge of leasing and maintaining the industrial park along North Kerr Road.

The park, located north of the Wilmington International Airport and downtown, was once the scene of a flurry of development during the peak of the real estate boom. But as the Great Recession tightened its grip on metro Wilmington, many of the plans for new flex industrial space were shelved.

“We have future plans for phase four of the park,” Eckel said. “But we have no intention to develop that phase until we see activity pick up in the industrial sector.”

Flex industrial space typically incorporates about 2,500 and 4,000-sqaure feet of warehouse and office space into one general area.

Rates for such new developments typically range from $7 to $8 per square foot in New Hanover County, but because of the slowdown in industrial growth, those rates have fallen to $5 to $6 per square foot.

Much of North Kerr Industrial Park is zoned light industrial, according to New Hanover County records, making it prime real estate for flex industrial development.

However, finding a tenant to occupy such quarters as greater Wilmington tries to recover from the recession has been no easy task.

“We’re just not seeing that much activity in the park at this time,” Eckel said. “A lot of it has to do with the economy and securing the financing for construction . . . it’s just tough at this moment.”

But despite the region’s slowdown in industrial development, Eckel and his team are hoping to build interest in the North Kerr Industrial Park again by pre-leasing a new flex industrial development at the park.

Plans call for the new, 24,000 square-foot flex building to be constructed in the 2900 block of Orville Wright Way in north New Hanover County. According to site plans, the future facility can be divided in 4,000 square-foot spaces; however, the entire space can be leased. The site would also house three offices and restrooms, along with a roll-up dock door in the warehouse section per unit.

“We’re looking to land a tenant first before moving forward with the development,” Eckel said. “Once a solid tenant is signed we’ll move forward with the construction of the site.”

Eckel admits while there has been some interest in the building, returning to pre-2005 levels of activity is going to longer than anticipated.

“We’ve had a couple of good credit tenants show interest in the space,” Eckel said. “Right now we are monitoring the market and being patient that something will move on the site.”