MONTVILLE, N.J. — Natixis has originated a $40 million floating-rate loan to a joint venture between Camber Real Estate Partners, Advance Realty and an institutional investor for the acquisition of 19 Chapin Road, an industrial campus located in Montville. The four-building campus features 529,110 square feet of light industrial space. Current tenants include Pitney Bowes, Doosan, Trane and Samsung. The loan includes an initial funding of $35 million plus an additional $5 million that is earmarked for future leasing and capital improvement work. Greg Nalbandian of HFF arranged the financing for the borrower.
COLLEGEVILLE, PA. — HFF has arranged $32.9 million in financing for Global Data Center, a purpose-built, Tier III+ data center facility located at 1000 Black Rock Road in Collegeville. The borrower, GI Partners, will use the financing to acquire the property. Kevin MacKenzie, Ryan Ade, Jamie Kline and Christian Tober of HFF arranged the three-year, floating-rate loan through Wells Fargo Bank for the borrower. Completed in 2009, the 203,702-square-foot facility features an available power load of 4.6 MW and the capacity to be expanded to 7 MW with additional capital investment.
MADISON, WIS. — Reich Brothers Holdings LLC and Rabin Worldwide have partnered to redevelop the former Oscar Mayer plant in Madison. The partnership will sell the equipment within the facility at a live and online public auction onsite on Dec. 6-8. Oscar Mayer, a producer of hot dogs, bacon and cold cuts, had occupied the property since 1919, with the site serving as its headquarters from 1957 to 2016. Kraft Heinz announced the closure in 2015 and officially ceased production this summer. The campus features 1.7 million square feet on a 72-acre site. The plan is to redevelop the campus, including repurposing several existing buildings, with a balanced mix of light manufacturing, warehouse, distribution and office space.
ROSEVILLE, MINN. — Meritex is developing two 144,000-square-foot industrial buildings in Roseville, 10 miles northeast of St. Paul. Highcrest II and III will replace the former 360,000-square-foot Minnesota Technology Exchange building upon its demolition this month. The property is located at 2470 Highcrest Road. Meritex developed the building currently on the site in 1964, and owned and managed the property for four decades. The company sold the building in 2004, and then repurchased the asset in 2016. Completion of Highcrest II and III is slated for fall 2018. David Stokes, Todd Hanson, Jason Sell, Chris Weirens and Ian Thompson of Cushman & Wakefield will market the property for lease.
FORT WORTH, TEXAS — Bob Moore Construction Inc. has completed a 641,226-square-foot facility for TTI Inc., a Fort Worth-based distribution firm. The facility, which will serve as the company’s main office headquarters and distribution center, is located within Mercantile Center, an industrial park situated along Meacham Boulevard on the city’s north side. Bob Moore Construction broke ground on the property, which features a tilt-wall configuration and 38 loading docks, in June 2016.
HOUSTON — Stream Realty Partners has broken ground on Northwest Logistics Center, a 411,442-square-foot distribution center situated on 26 acres off North Eldridge Parkway just south of State Highway 290 in northwest Houston. Scheduled to deliver in June 2018, the cross-dock facility will feature 32-foot clear heights, an ESFR sprinkler system and additional outdoor/trailer storage space. The property is designed to accommodate users with footprints ranging from 75,000 square feet to the building’s full capacity.
GARLAND, TEXAS — JLL has arranged a 164,419-square-foot industrial lease at 3502 Regency Crest Drive in the Dallas metro of Garland on behalf of Zobele Group, an Italian product development and manufacturing firm. The company is expected to move in during the second quarter of 2018. Terry Darrow and Chris Stout of JLL represented Zobele Group in the lease negotiations. Ryan Wolcott of Stream Realty Partners represented the landlord, Stag Texas Holdings.
DUNMORE, PA. — Hinerfield Commercial has arranged the sale of an industrial property located at 150 Grove St. in Dunmore. A coffee manufacturer from New Jersey acquired the property for an undisclosed price. The buyer plans to move its operations to the 166,499-square-foot facility. The facility was originally constructed in 1919 as a silk mill. The name of the seller and acquisition price were not released.
HOUSTON — The number of American manufacturing jobs has been decreasing for more than a decade, radically enough that the pledge to return them became a cornerstone of President Donald Trump’s campaign. Between 2004 and 2014, the country lost about 2.1 million manufacturing jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which also projects that another 814,000 manufacturing jobs will be cut by 2024. The decline in manufacturing jobs has coincided with job growth in other industrial subfields, particularly transportation and warehousing. The total number of jobs in this sector increased by about 391,000 between 2004 and 2014, with an additional 137,000 new positions expected to be created by 2024, per the BLS. Analyzed in the context of e-commerce, these trends suggest that industrial activity is still robust throughout the country, but that distribution is outstripping manufacturing as the primary form of industrial-using employment. Yet the growth of e-commerce alone does not account for the radical dip in the number of manufacturing jobs available. The substitution of human labor for automated robot workers has also been a driving force behind sluggish job growth in the manufacturing sector, according to a panel of industrial real estate professionals who gathered …
MESQUITE, TEXAS — Illinois-based design/build firm FCL Builders Inc. has broken ground on an 877,230-square-foot distribution center for Ashley Furniture in Mesquite. The facility will be located at 4000 E. Scyene Road near several major thoroughfares, including Interstates 635 and 20, as well as U.S. Highway 80. Completion of the facility, which is expected to create about 170 new jobs, is slated for September 2018.