PARSIPPANY, N.J. — Tulfra Real Estate, along with its partner The Hampshire Cos., has completed the sale of an industrial facility located at 2 Cranberry Road in Parsippany. An undisclosed buyer acquired the 181,000-square-foot property for $17.5 million. The property recently underwent a $2.1 million renovation, including upgrades to the façade, parking lot resurfacing, addition of loading docks and building system improvements. The property is currently occupied by a variety of warehousing, R&D and production tenants, including Aphena Pharma Solutions, Applechem Inc. and IWK Packaging Systems. Jeffrey Dunne, Kevin Welsh, Brian Schultz and Steve Sander of CBRE represented the seller. Additionally, Igor Derbaremdiker provided in-house representation for The Hampshire Cos.
EL PASO, TEXAS — Dallas-based Covington Group Inc. has begun a multi-million dollar capital improvement project for the six-building, 548,629-square-foot Butterfield Trail portfolio in El Paso. Affiliates of Covington Group acquired the portfolio from Butterfield Trail Trust 1 earlier this year for an undisclosed price. Covington Group has hired Christian Perez Giese and Chad McCleskey of CBRE’s El Paso office as the portfolio’s leasing agents. The portfolio, made up of warehouse and flex buildings, was 69 percent occupied at the time of purchase. The most significant capital improvements are underway at 19 Leigh Fisher Blvd., where there is a 120,000-square-foot vacancy. Improvements include a white box inside the warehouse area, new exterior and interior lighting and exterior paint and landscaping, as well as removal of a former tenant’s manufacturing infrastructure and overall deferred maintenance to the property. Covington expects to complete improvements to the entire portfolio by the end of this summer.
RICHARDSON, TEXAS — Steve Doyle has been promoted to vice president of business operations at Hill & Wilkinson General Contractors. Doyle will serve as the firm’s general counsel and oversee all legal activities of Hill & Wilkinson, including risk management and contracts. Steve’s experience includes the application of construction law and developing an understanding of the risks in the construction industry. Prior to joining Hill & Wilkinson, Steve served as corporate counsel for Austin Industries. He earned his bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Texas School of Law. Steve teaches a construction law course at the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. He is a member of the construction law section of the State Bar of Texas and the American Bar Association Forum on the construction industry. He is also a past chair of the construction law section of the Dallas Bar Association.
MABELVALE, ARK. — Stan Johnson Co. has brokered the $31.6 million sale of a freestanding, 311,684-square-foot industrial facility located at 8 Industrial Parkway in Mabelvale, roughly 12 miles south of Little Rock. Situated at the I-30 and I-430 interchange, the newly built package sorting and distribution facility is leased to FedEx Ground Package System Inc. and features 34- and 39-foot clear heights and more than 1,000 trailer and auto parking spaces. Britton Burdette and Mollie Alteri of Stan Johnson Co. represented the seller, Saad Development Corp., in the transaction. Todd Blonsley of Marcus & Millichap represented the buyer, WilArk LLC.
CHICAGO — Power Home Remodeling Group has signed a long-term lease for 31,000 square feet at the Bradley Business Center in Chicago. The company is relocating from 9450 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. in Rosemont where it occupied 7,000 square feet. Power Home Remodeling will use 21,000 square feet of space for offices and the remainder of the space will be used as warehouse space. The facility, located at 2500 W. Bradley Place, will serve as the company’s Midwest headquarters when the lease goes into effect this November. The mixed-use building features amenities such as a fitness center, rooftop deck, conference center, event space, bike storage and ample parking. Hansen Realty Services and Centrum Partners own the 500,000-square-foot Bradley Business Center, which is 86 percent occupied. Brett Berlin represented the ownership in-house. Marilyn Lissner and Joseph Gatto of Cushman & Wakefield represented the tenant in the transaction.
The Chicago industrial market continues its charge full steam ahead in 2016, driven by strong fundamentals, our diverse economy, intense investor demand and constrained development. After a strong first quarter, the second quarter seems to be keeping pace. Demand remains high and continues to outpace new construction. We will also see more new projects announced as developers see continued success with existing projects. At the end of the first quarter, the overall vacancy rate in metro Chicago was slightly over 7 percent, down 10 basis points from the end of 2015, according to CoStar Group. All of the major submarkets posted vacancy rates of 10.1 percent or lower. Robust leasing activity Positive absorption in the first quarter was approximately 3.4 million square feet. Chicago has seen positive absorption every year since 2011, and this year looks to be headed in the same direction. The most active submarkets of O’Hare, I-55 and I-80 recorded vacancy rates of approximately 4.8 percent, 7.4 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively. Vacancy rates in those submarkets will continue to improve as speculative development is gobbled up as quickly as it is built, and existing product continues to get leased up. The I-80 and I-55 submarkets alone …
NEW YORK CITY, AND NEWARK, DEL. — GTJ REIT Inc. has acquired two industrial properties in two separate transactions. In the first transaction, the REIT purchased a 58,000-square-foot warehouse/garage situated on 1.2 acres in Brooklyn’s East New York neighborhood. The property is currently leased to The City of New York for the Department of Sanitation through 2025. In the second deal, GTJ REIT acquired a 208,000-square-foot warehouse distribution facility situated on 12.4 acres in Newark. Built in 1999, the property is fully leased to Valassis Communications Inc. through 2025. The tenant uses the property to sort and distribute print ad materials from Maine to Northern Virginia on behalf of its customers. Terms of the transactions, including the sellers’ names and acquisition prices, were not released. With these two acquisitions, GTJ now owns 47 properties, consisting of close to 5.5 million square feet on approximately 350 acres of land.
SPARKS, NEV. — Brennan Investment Group has purchased a seven-building industrial portfolio in Sparks for an undisclosed sum. The portfolio contains a total of 584,866 square feet. Sparks is the largest industrial submarket in the Reno metropolitan area, according to the firm.
VISTA, CALIF. — La Mirada Drive LLC has acquired Thibodo Ranch Business Center, a 53,572-square-foot industrial business park in the San Diego submarket of Vista, for $7.5 million. The park is located at 2330, 2332, 2336 La Mirada Drive. The LLC plans to stabilize the project and hold as a long-term investment property. Isaac Little, Marko Dragovic, Matt Weaver and Al Apuzzo of Lee & Associates – North San Diego County represented the buyer. Little, Dragovic and Larry Strickland represented the seller, Thibodo Ranch LLC, in this transaction.
RENO, NEV. — The Bendetti Company has purchased a 631,115-square-foot industrial campus in Reno for an undisclosed sum. The Class B property contains three single-tenant and three multi-tenant buildings for a total of nine fully occupied units. The units range from 12,220 to 149,600 square feet. The property also contains a 12,220-square-foot cold-storage unit. Bendetti was able to complete the all-cash transaction using short-term financing from its partner, JCR Capital. The project was then recapitalized for a longer hold period with Reinsurance Group of America acting as the equity provider. Wells Fargo financed the debt. Both RGA and Wells Fargo were sourced through HFF. Bendetti also recently purchased the 165,000-square-foot Spice Island multi-tenant industrial building in Sparks for an undisclosed sum.