AGAWAM, MASS. — Marcus & Millichap has brokered the $2.8 million sale of a 37,650-square-foot industrial building in Agawam, located just south of Springfield in western Massachusetts. The building, which was fully occupied at the time of sale, sits on a 3.4-acre site and features five loading docks and 40 parking spaces. Harrison Klein of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller, a group of private investors, in the transaction. Tom Hovey and Eric Suffoletto of Atlantic Capital Partners represented the buyer, an individual/personal trust.
RINCON, GA. — Atlanta-based Core5 Industrial Partners plans to develop Effingham Business Center, a 121-acre industrial park situated in Rincon, a city in the Savannah market of Effingham County. The site is approximately 9.5 miles from Port of Savannah’s Garden City Terminal and 10 miles from Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport. The park will feature a 401,760-square-foot rear-load building, which will accommodate tenants 100,000 square feet and higher, and a 362,880-square-foot front-load building designed to accommodate tenants of 150,000 square feet and higher. Both buildings are being developed on a speculative basis and will feature 36-foot clear heights, automobile parking, office finishes, dock equipment, lighting and 185-foot truck courts. Delivery of both buildings is scheduled for the first quarter of 2025. CBRE’s Savannah office will handle leasing efforts on behalf of Core5 for both buildings.
APOPKA, FLA. — An affiliate of PGIM Real Estate has sold Northwest Distribution Center, a four-property, 646,436-square-foot industrial park in Apopka, a suburb of Orlando. New York-based Clarion Partners purchased the asset for an undisclosed price. Situated off State Road 429 and Ocoee Apopka Road, the portfolio was 85 percent leased at the time of sale. Buildings A and B at Northwest Distribution Center were built in 2008, and Buildings C and D were delivered in 2017. Jose Lobón, Frank Fallon, Trey Barry, David Murphy, Royce Rose and Alain Bonvecchio of CBRE represented the seller in the transaction.
By Taylor Williams Tenant demand and availability of capital for industrial deals are still healthy in Texas, but end users and developers are demonstrating a clear push for smaller footprints in their leases and projects. This shift reflects a marked departure from recent years, when massive speculative facilities were financed without hesitation or preleasing and industrial users had little choice but to accept staggering levels of rent growth. Spikes in interest rates bear some, but not all, blame for this emerging dynamic. Local and regional banks tend to be go-to debt providers on industrial projects, and these groups take defensive positions with their capital flows during high interest rate environments. And while reliance on e-commerce and third-party distribution remains deeply ingrained in consumer preferences, users still see value in rightsizing their footprints in today’s market. As such, the industrial landscape is changing in Texas, where exceptionally strong population growth nonetheless ensures that the sector remains on very solid footing overall. But changes are undoubtedly happening. Large-scale spec facilities are being swapped for smaller build-to-suits, and manufacturing deals are taking up a larger share of the development pipeline. Lenders are tightening leverage and demanding more upfront equity for projects that they …
GOODYEAR, ARIZ. — Prologis Inc. (NYSE: PLD) has acquired Airpark Logistics Center in Goodyear, a western suburb of Phoenix, for $184 million. Creation and CrossHarbor Capital Partners were the sellers. The transaction marks the largest multi-building industrial business park acquisition in Arizona history, according to Creation. Located directly adjacent to Phoenix Goodyear Airport, the campus spans 170 acres. The first phase, comprising three buildings with 1.4 million square feet of leasable space, was completed last month. LGE Design Build served as the architect and general contractor. The second phase of the project includes 84 acres of undeveloped land for build-to-suit industrial projects. At full build-out, the development will span more than 2.7 million square feet. “The recognition of Airpark Logistics Center’s potential by a logistics real estate leader like Prologis is a testament to the quality of the asset,” says Grant Kingdon, principal of Creation’s Mountain region. “The center’s strategic location, innovative design and growth potential align perfectly with our vision for delivering sustainable developments that meet the needs of modern logistics tenants. This sale is especially significant today given the current market dynamics, where deals of this scale are rare.” Will Strong, Kirk Kuller, Michael Matchett and Molly Hunt …
Self-storage has had an amazing run since just before the pandemic. Cap rates started near 6 percent, with buildings starting at $150 per square foot. Then came the flood of pandemic capital pushing prices — by mid-2022 prices jumped to a point no one had previously experienced. “In some of the bigger markets, we were seeing per-square-foot prices of $300 and above for the first time,” says Denise Nunez, executive managing director with NAI Horizon. Cap rates fell to as low as 4 percent. “The low cap rates had gotten to such a point where many brokers were not even pricing deals because they didn’t want to miss that extra that they could get on the sale.” But rising interest rates have had an impact on self-storage, as they have had on every other commercial real estate asset class, with prices reversing again. Investors are still unsure of what the Federal Reserve will be doing in the near term with monetary policy. Building costs are high — final delivery construction costs are still higher by 40 percent or more than pre-pandemic. That reality has resulted in investors alternating between cold feet and, with some signs that the Fed may plan …
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — DC Blox, a data center provider based in Atlanta, has opened its Cable Landing Station in Myrtle Beach. The 125,000-square-foot facility is equipped with 19 megawatts (mW) of power and can host up to five subsea cables and colocation space for network and cable operators, communications providers, local enterprises and partners. DC Blox is also building a dark fiber route from the new facility to its communications hub in Atlanta. Google has announced two subsea cables that will land at the Myrtle Beach station, including the Firmina cable connecting Myrtle Beach to Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, and the Nuvem cable to connect to Portugal and Bermuda. Edge Holdings (a subsidiary of Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram) has announced that it plans to land its Anjana cable connecting to Spain.
BLOOMINGDALE, GA. — Atlanta-based MDH Partners has purchased Beltway Logistics Center, a 655,370-square-foot industrial facility located in Bloomingdale, about 15 miles from the Port of Savannah. The seller, a joint venture led by TPA Group, recently delivered the property, which is situated less than one mile from I-16. Joe DeHaven led the acquisition process for MDH Partners on an internal basis. The sales price was not disclosed. The cross-deck facility features 40-foot clear heights, 172 trailer parking spots, 134 dock-high doors, 185-foot concrete truck courts, 2,445 square feet of speculative office space and LED lighting in the warehouse. Notable neighbors of Beltway Logistics Center include Floor & Decor, FedEx and Arco Plastic.
WAKE FOREST, N.C. — St. John Properties has purchased a 30-acre site in Wake Forest, about 13 miles north of Raleigh. The Baltimore-based developer plans to build Wake Forest Exchange, a 165,000-square-foot mixed-use business community comprising flex, research-and-development (R&D), office and retail space. Phase I will include two flex/R&D buildings spanning approximately 95,000 square feet, a 25,000-square-foot office building and a 10,000-square-foot retail building. The remaining flex/R&D and retail buildings will be phased based on leasing pace, with the goal of executing St. John Properties’ entire development plan by 2027. Wake Forest Exchange is expected to support nearly 500 jobs at final build-out and leasing. Jay Taylor of SVN Tar Heel Commercial Realty Inc. represented the unnamed seller in the land sale, and St. John Properties was self-represented.
NEW YORK CITY — New York City-based Simone Development Cos. has purchased a retail building in the Morris Park area of The Bronx with plans to convert the property into a 186,298-square-foot industrial facility. The site at 1720 Eastchester Road, which previously housed a 63,000-square-foot Stop & Shop grocery store, liquor store and a Subway restaurant, is adjacent to Hutchinson Metro Center, Simone’s 1.4 million-square-foot mixed-use development. Jonathan Squires and Josh King of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller, Madison International Realty, in the transaction. Megan Guy, Brian Reardon, Josh Gopan, Dina Gupta and Sean Heneghan represented Simone Development on an internal basis.