MILWAUKEE — Colliers International has brokered the sale of the King Juice Co. headquarters in Milwaukee for $4.5 million. The 114,000-square-foot beverage manufacturing property is located at 851 W. Grange Ave. King Juice Co., which makes lemonades, iced teas and fruit beverages, has a long-term lease at the property. Tom Shepherd, Jennifer Huber-Bullock and Steve Sewart of Colliers represented the seller, Milwaukee-based Salvatore B. Purpero Living Trust. New York-based BBS Grange Road Investors LLC purchased the asset. The buyer plans to add a new parking lot and upgrade the office finishes.
CHICAGO — Meridian Design Build has broken ground on an 84,000-square-foot USDA meat processing plant for Amylu Foods in Chicago’s Stockyards Industrial Park. The new sausage processing facility will include 56,000 square feet of production and cold-storage space and a freezer. The property will also include 16,500 square feet of corporate office space, including separate raw and cooked facilities, test kitchens and a laboratory. An expandable ammonia refrigeration plant will accommodate plant cooling and production loads. Harris Architects and Kimley-Horn make up the project team.
FORT WORTH, TEXAS — CT Realty has begun construction of Westport Logistics Center, an 882,565-square-foot industrial project located within the Alliance submarket of Fort Worth. The facility, which is being developed in a joint venture with Mitsubishi’s Diamond Realty Investments, will be situated within a mile of Interstate 35 and adjacent to Fort Worth Alliance Airport, as well as the BNSF intermodal railway. The project will consist of two buildings in either single-sided or cross-dock configurations, with 32- and 36-foot clear heights, 185-foot truck courts and build-to-suit office spaces. Completion is slated for the fourth quarter. Westport Logistics Center is CT Realty’s fourth major industrial development in the DFW metroplex.
WORCESTER, MASS. — Marcus & Millichap has negotiated the $2.4M sale of an industrial facility in Massachusetts. Located at 344 Franklin St., the 300,000-square-foot property was 60 percent occupied at the time of sale. Harrison Klein and Matthew Pierce in Marcus & Millichap’s Boston office represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction. An existing tenant purchased the property pursuant to a right of first refusal.
ASHLEY, IND. — Brightmark Energy has received $260 million in financing to build the nation’s first commercial-scale plastics-to-fuel plant in Ashley, a small town of fewer than 1,000 residents in the northeast corner of Indiana. The financing includes $185 million in Indiana green bonds, which were underwritten by Goldman Sachs & Co. Brightmark plans to invest $47 million in the plant, according to KPC News, a local news outlet. Brightmark is the controlling owner of RES Polyflow, an Ohio-based energy technology company that innovated the process for converting plastics directly into transportation fuel and other products. Brightmark acquired a majority interest in the company in November. Brightmark Energy Ashley Indiana will convert up to 100,000 tons of plastics into 18 million gallons per year of ultra-low-sulfur diesel and naphtha blend fuels and nearly 6 million gallons a year of commercial-grade wax in a process that is expected to be 93 percent efficient. The outputs could also be used to produce the feedstocks necessary for manufacturing plastic again, “thus creating the world’s first truly circular economy technology for plastics,” according to Brightmark. “We are excited about the market’s confidence in the validity of this technology to economically convert single-use plastics for …
Fueled by continued population growth that has made Columbus the 14th-largest city in America and its strategic location in the U.S. Interstate system, the Columbus industrial market has been on a multi-year run in terms of new inventory and positive net absorption. Given the fact that drivers are able to reach approximately 50 percent of American households and 30 percent of Canadians within a one-day drive of the city, we see no end in sight for these market trends. That one-day drive statistic has made Columbus one of the country’s leading e-commerce distribution markets. Also, according to a recent ranking by Realtor.com, the metropolitan area is the only large northern city to grow its population by more than 10 percent from 2010 to 2017. The company also reported that Columbus was the fourth-hottest housing market based on the number of hits each listing receives and time on the market. Further, the central Ohio region’s business-friendly environment encourages developers to build in designated areas, and it is working. At the close of the fourth quarter last year, 5.7 million square feet of new industrial product was under construction. The overall vacancy rate for the Columbus industrial market was 4.8 percent, which …
NEWNAN, GA. AND ORLANDO, FLA. — Industrial Outdoor Ventures (IOV) has acquired two industrial facilities, one located in Newnan and the other in Orlando. IOV purchased the metro Atlanta property from Spancrete for $5.5 million. The vacant former concrete facility sits on 41.3 acres and will be fully redeveloped into a transportation and heavy equipment storage facility. The site is located at 95 Newnan South Industrial Drive, three miles from Interstate 85 and 42 miles southwest of downtown Atlanta. The Orlando asset was bought for $3.4 million from a private seller. Sitting on 6.5 acres at 3732 Bryn Mawr St., the property offers 63 dock-high doors and three drive-thru bays. The facility is fully leased to ABF Freight System Inc.
GOODYEAR, ARIZ. — Fairlife, a milk production company, plans to develop a 300,000-square-foot production and distribution facility in Goodyear. Slated to begin operations in late 2020, the $200 million facility will house product lines to accommodate growing demand. Working with the United Dairymen of Arizona to source milk from numerous dairy farmers in Goodyear, the new Fairlife plant will enable increased production of all its products, including different varieties of ultra-filtered milk, Core Power, fairlife YUP!, fairlife smart snacks and fairlife nutrition plan. Located at the corner of Cotton Lane and Thomas Road within Palm Valley 303 Business Park, the new facility will feature advanced manufacturing technologies and energy-saving equipment to reduce power consumption, while creating more than 140 local jobs.
GERMANTOWN, WIS. — Zilber Property Group has unveiled plans to develop two speculative industrial facilities totaling 403,021 square feet in Germantown, a northwest submarket of Milwaukee. The buildings will be situated within the newly constructed Germantown Gateway Corporate Park. Currently, a 706,000-square-foot distribution facility occupied by Wauwatosa-based Briggs & Stratton Corp. anchors the business park. The new facilities will feature clear heights of 30 feet, LED lighting and ESFR sprinkler systems. A timeline for development was not disclosed.
HOUSTON — Indianapolis-based REIT Duke Realty (NYSE: DRE) will develop Clay 99 Building 5, a 433,200-square-foot speculative industrial project in Houston. The property, which will be marketed to logistics users, will be situated on 23.7 acres just off Grand Parkway at the intersection of Clay and Peek roads on the city’s northwest side. Building features will include 36-foot clear heights, 190-foot truck courts on both sides, 347 automobile parking spaces and 100 trailer parking spaces. Delivery is slated for February 2020.