PLEASANT PRAIRIE, WIS. AND NORTH CHICAGO, ILL. — EQT Exeter, a global industrial and residential investment firm, has purchased an eight-property industrial portfolio in Wisconsin and Illinois totaling 3.8 million square feet. CenterPoint Properties, a warehouse and distribution center investor and developer based in Oak Brook, Ill., and an unnamed investment partner sold the portfolio to EQT Exeter.
John Huguenard and Kurt Sarbaugh of JLL represented CenterPoint in the transaction. The sales price was not disclosed, but the Milwaukee Business Journal reports the assets traded for $290 million.
The properties include seven facilities within the master-planned LakeView Corporate Park in Pleasant Prairie, which is situated near I-94 and provides users with connectivity to population centers in Milwaukee 40 miles north and Chicago 60 miles to the south. The lone Illinois asset was a facility located at 3200 Skokie Highway in North Chicago.
The eight properties were fully leased at the time of sale to nine tenants. The facilities feature clear heights averaging 32 feet, ample loading options and fully circulating truck courts.
“In these times of economic uncertainty, we are even more focused on selectively buying high-quality and well-located real estate like LakeView to serve our global tenant relationships,” says Matt Brodnik, EQT Exeter’s chief investment officer.
In addition to the facilities, the portfolio includes six land sites in Pleasant Prairie totaling 144 acres. No capital improvement details were disclosed.
EQT Exeter was formed last year in the merger between Swedish private equity giant EQT and Pennsylvania-based industrial owner Exeter Property Group. Today, EQT Exeter acquires, develops, leases and manages logistics, office, life sciences and residential properties around the world. The firm has 300 employees and oversees a global footprint spanning 350 million across 1,800 buildings.
CenterPoint Properties acquires, develops, redevelops, manages, leases and sells warehouse, distribution and manufacturing facilities near major transportation nodes, especially seaports and inland ports. The company has lately been actively buying and developing in California.
— John Nelson and Kristin Hiller