CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Charlotte office of CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) has brokered the sale of Crosspoint Center, a seven building, approximately 1.08 million-square-foot distribution park located in Charlotte. The sale is being touted as one of the largest industrial investment sales in the city this year, trading at $34.22 million, according to public records. Crosspoint is ideally located near the intersection of Interstates 85 and 77. The buildings range in size from 80,000 to 270,000 square feet, have an average clear height of 24 feet, and feature front and rear loading configurations. Occupancy was 90 percent at the time of closing, and tenants at the center include SYGMA, Medic (a Mecklenburg EMS agency), MeadWestVaco, Pitney Bowes, Brooks Equipment and Accu-Tech.
The buyer in the transaction was Boston-based TA Associates Realty, which already has a presence in the city. “From TA's perspective, they are comfortable with Charlotte, they think it has a viable industrial market, and they have had a lot of success in the past,” says Ryan Clutter, executive vice president with CBRE. Clutter, along with CBRE colleagues Anne Johnson, Adam Basch and Patrick Gildea, represented the seller, a group of institutional investors advised by JPMorgan Investment Management.
To Clutter, the sale is a good indicator that there are signs of life in the Charlotte industrial market, but he believes there are still challenges ahead before the market can fully recover. “You're going to see some more industrial transactions in 2010,” he says, “but it probably will not be, by any means, at the level we saw a few years ago.”
He adds, “The economy is challenged here right now, just like anywhere else, but it seems to be holding up better than other regions.”
— Coleman Wood