HOUSTON — Fort Worth-based investment firm Fort Capital has acquired a 258,999-square-foot industrial portfolio in Houston. The portfolio consists of five Class B, light industrial buildings with a total of 97 units that are located across three different unnamed sites. The portfolio was 81 percent leased at the time of sale. The seller and sales price were not disclosed.
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Rockefeller Group has broken ground on Spartanburg 221, a 1 million-square-foot speculative industrial facility located in Spartanburg. The 87.7-acre project will be situated off Highway 221 and approximately one mile northwest of the I-85 Exit 78 interchange. Spartanburg 221 will include 40-foot clear heights, 56- by 53-foot column spacing, up to 530 parking spaces and up to 237 trailer stalls. The design-build team includes architect Atlas Collaborative and general contractor Pattillo Construction. Campbell Lewis and Marcus Cornelius of CBRE are handling the leasing assignment. The duo is also leasing Rockefeller Group’s Duncan Logistics Center, a nearby 827,000-square-foot development that is nearing completion. The developer acquired the Spartanburg site last year and plans to deliver the facility in fourth-quarter 2024.
HOUSTON — Colliers has brokered the sale of a 127,000-square-foot industrial building in northeast Houston. The shallow-bay building, known as Northport Business Park, sits on an eight-acre site at 7101-7157 N. Loop E. Jason Scholtz of Colliers represented the buyer, Harbor Capital, in the transaction. Jason Gandy and Derrick Jones represented the seller, Sealy & Co., on an internal basis. The sales price was not disclosed.
SADDLE BROOK, N.J. — New Jersey-based private equity real estate firm Sitex Group has acquired Zuckerberg’s Industrial Park, a 640,000-square-foot industrial campus located in the Northern New Jersey community of Saddle Brook. Zuckerberg’s Industrial Park, which has been owned by a local family for three generations, comprises 50 buildings on a 40-acre site and a four-acre trailer parking lot. Tenants at the development include UPS, ServePro and Johnstone Supply. The sales price was not disclosed, and no third-party brokers were involved in the deal. Sitex plans to implement a value-add program via new paving, lighting and signage, as well as updated building interiors.
KEARNY, N.J. — CBRE has secured a 63,902-square-foot industrial lease in the Northern New Jersey community of Kearny. The site at 20 Basin Drive is situated within the four-building Kearny Point Industrial Park. Kevin Dudley, Nicholas Klacik, Chad Hillyer and Kate Granahan of CBRE represented the landlord, New York City-based Hugo Neu Corp., in the lease negotiations. Jimo Liu with Avison Young represented the tenant, logistics firm Global Courier Express.
PLEASANT PRAIRIE, WIS. — Dermody Properties has acquired the former We Energies power plant in Pleasant Prairie, a southern suburb of Milwaukee. The firm plans to redevelop the site into a 232-acre campus named LogistiCenter at Pleasant Prairie. Plans call for three logistics buildings totaling 2.4 million square feet that will accommodate built-to-suit opportunities. Mass grading is underway, with building pads ready for vertical construction by the fourth quarter. Given its historic operation supporting southeast Wisconsin’s power grid as a backup power plant, LogistiCenter at Pleasant Prairie has access to abundant power. The site also benefits from large quantities of freshwater service from Lake Michigan.
WASHINGTON, MO. — Contegra Construction Co. is underway on a 220,000-square-foot production facility for AZZ Precoat Metals in Washington, about 50 miles west of St. Louis. AZZ Precoat Metals is an independent metal coil coater. Completion of the facility is slated for spring 2024. Production equipment will be installed in the second half of 2024, with production anticipated to commence in 2025. The project will be part of the 115-acre Oldenburg Industrial Park. Joining Contegra on the project are Vision Electric for electrical, Jarrell Mechanical Contractors for HVAC, O.J. Laughlin Plumbing Co. Inc. for plumbing and Musselman & Hall Contractors for concrete. Texas-based AZZ Inc. acquired Precoat Metals for $1.3 billion from Sequa Corp. in May 2022.
GILBERT, ARIZ. — DAUM Commercial Real Estate Services has brokered the sale of an industrial building located at 1416 W. San Pedro St. in Gilbert. Sunstone Rover LLC sold the asset to a family-owned corporation for $5.5 million. With the sale, the building will become the headquarters of Swain Electric, a Gilbert-based electrical contractor. Dan Casey of the DAUM Commercial Phoenix represented the seller, while Blake Hardison of Ike Commercial Real Estate represented the buyer in the deal.
By MaCauley Studdard In the last two-plus years, rent growth and net absorption have both reached new heights, fueled by record levels of demand as a result of surging e-commerce sales. While e-commerce sales growth and the ongoing operational trend of maintaining higher inventory volumes has provided a tailwind to industrial fundamentals, there is also a third critically important component of demand growth that could continue to have an outsized influence on the industrial market in the months and years ahead: onshoring supply chain operations. Understanding the broader dynamics behind the onshoring trend is important to accurately measure its influence on the industrial market. Slowing trade growth The rapid pace of growth in global trade has been one of the most significant economic trends of the last half century: the defining characteristic of modern economies. The percentage of the world’s economy attributed to international trade nearly doubled between 1973 and 2008, growing from approximately 30 percent to 59 percent. While international trade remains the single most influential factor in the global economy, that figure has remained somewhat static in the last 15 years. Several factors have contributed to slowing global trade growth, including: • Growing demand for skilled labor • …
By Scott Bluhm, Newmark Zimmer Since 2016, the Kansas City industrial market has been on a hot streak. We observed more opportunities and increased user activity. There have been consistent years of record positive space absorption and the delivery of Class A buildings, whether speculative or build-to-suit. The peak of that hot streak was in 2022. The year concluded with records in positive absorption, vacancy and rental growth. By the end of 2022, Kansas City became the 15th-largest industrial market in terms of square footage, surpassing Seattle. Significant statistics for 2022: •Over 16 million square feet of positive absorption •A vacancy low of 3.6 percent •A 10.6 percent increase in rental rates The year 2023 has been unique due to economic conditions and uncertainty. New speculative construction starts are down approximately 70 percent, with around 2.5 million square feet breaking ground in 2023. Most of the speculative buildings delivering in 2023 were projects that began construction in 2022. Annual net absorption has decreased to 2.5 million square feet in the first and second quarters. For reference, the fourth quarter of 2022 saw a record-setting net absorption of approximately 7.3 million square feet, and the third quarter of 2022 had 3.2 …