LAWRENCE, MASS. — Locally based design-build firm Dacon Corp. has completed a 97,000-square-foot industrial expansion project in Lawrence, a northern suburb of Boston, for commercial linen and uniform service provider Unitex. The project represents the second phase of Unitex’s redevelopment of the former headquarters of global food and beverage manufacturer Crown Holdings into a facility with laundry processing and office space. The first phase of the project comprised 90,000 square feet.
FONTANA, CALIF. — A collaboration between Real Estate Development Associates (REDA), Clarion Partners and ECM Management has broken ground on I-10 Almond Commerce Center, a warehouse facility in Fontana. Premier Design + Build Group is constructing the ground-up project. The 210,355-square-foot warehouse will feature 36-foot clear heights, eight-inch reinforced concrete slab and a four-ply built-up roof system, as well as an ESFR sprinkler system and 2,000 GMP fire pump. The facility will also offer an office area with mezzanine space and parking for 101 vehicles and 32 trailers. HPA is serving as architect for the project, which is slated for completion in May 2023. Thienes Engineering and Darin Fong and Associates are providing engineering services for the property.
NEW BRIGHTON, MINN. — Clear Height Properties has acquired Rush Lake Business Park in New Brighton, a northern suburb of Minneapolis. The purchase price was undisclosed. The industrial property consists of two buildings totaling 79,028 square feet that are 87 percent leased. Harrison Wagenseil and Erik Coglianese of Transwestern represented the undisclosed seller. Transwestern will also handle leasing on behalf of Clear Height. The transaction marks the first acquisition in Minnesota for Oak Brook, Ill.-based Clear Height.
At the mid-year mark, industrial occupancy in the greater Richmond area remains strong, closing with an overall occupancy rate of 98.5 percent in the categories being tracked (Class A, B, select C vacant and investor-owned product with a minimum of 40,000 square feet total RBA). Class A occupancy remained steady at 97 percent at the end of the second quarter. Class B occupancy also remained steady at 94 percent at the end of the first quarter. CoStar Group reports overall industrial occupancy at 96.8 percent for product of all sizes, including investor-owned facilities, but excluding flex space (minimum 50 percent office). There remains a shortage of space in the 25,000- to 50,000-square-foot range as most spec buildings being built are larger single-tenant buildings. Richmond’s strategic Mid-Atlantic location along Interstate 95 provides access to 55 percent of the nation’s consumers within two days’ delivery by truck, and in addition to being the northernmost right to work state on the Eastern seaboard, Virginia has once again been named as the No. 1 state for business by CNBC. Metro Richmond has a civilian labor force of almost 700,000 (1.03 million population) with unemployment rates at 3.7 percent as of June. With 12 Fortune …
ARLINGTON, TEXAS — Bassett Furniture, a Virginia-based manufacturer and retailer, has signed a 38,582-square-foot industrial lease at 1019 Enterprise Place in Arlington. Mark Graybill of Lee & Associates represented the landlord, High Street Logistics Properties, in the lease negotiations. Reed Parker, also with Lee & Associates, represented the tenant.
WOODLAND PARK, N.J. — City National Bank has provided a $60 million loan for the refinancing of a 205,000-square-foot industrial building located in the Northern New Jersey community of Woodland Park. The property at 1150 McBride Ave. features a clear height of 36 feet, two drive-in doors and ample trailer and employee parking. The borrower was a partnership between two New Jersey-based firms, The STRO Cos. and KRE Group.
NEW YORK CITY — Locally based investment firm DIB Development Group has acquired a roughly 100,000-square-foot industrial property in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood for $19.9 million. The four-story complex was originally constructed in 1917 and is located across the street from the Brooklyn Army Terminal. Gary Mayzlin of Real Estate Trade Co. Inc. represented the seller, Deitsch Realty, in the transaction.
PHOENIX — Gantry has secured a $20 million permanent loan to refinance a flex industrial building in Central Phoenix. Tim Storey of Gantry arranged the financing on behalf of the borrower, a private investor. The 10-year, fixed-rate loan features interest-only payment terms. One of Gantry’s institutional debt fund lenders provided the loan. A single credit tenant occupies the 100,000-square-foot property, which is customized for use in human and pet pharmaceutical product manufacturing and distribution, on a long-term lease.
FAYETTEVILLE, GA. — Quality Technology Services (QTS), a data center owner and operator, has acquired 615 acres in Fayetteville, about 25 miles south of Atlanta. The Overland Park, Kan.-based firm plans to develop the world’s largest multi-data center campus on the site, according to CBRE. The square footage and construction timeline for the campus were not released. Tim Huffman and Mike Lash of CBRE represented the seller, the Fayette County Development Authority, in the deal. The duo also procured QTS, which acquired the assemblage for $153.8 million, or approximately $250,000 per acre. Atlanta’s data center market has seen strong demand as the market recorded a vacancy rate of 3.6 percent as of second-quarter 2022, according to CBRE research. The market is currently home to 249.5 megawatts (MW) of data center capacity, a 71.7-MW increase from the first half of 2021.
ALPHARETTA, GA. — Lincoln Rackhouse, the data center division of Lincoln Property Co., and Principal Real Estate Investors, the real estate investment arm for Principal Global Investors, have partnered to purchase a 185,000-square-foot data center. Originally built and occupied by cell phone giant Blackberry in 2009, the data center sits on a 38-acre site at 4905 N. Point Parkway in Alpharetta, less than two miles from the Avalon mixed-use development and about 25 miles north of Atlanta. The seller and sales price were not disclosed. The data center’s current capacity is 7 megawatts (MW) but is expandable up to 13 MW, and the site can accommodate a new ground-up data center that can support 30 MW of capacity. St. Louis-based Ascent will continue to provide facilities management, engineering and construction services to the site. Digital Crossroad and CBRE’s Atlanta-based data center solutions team will provide marketing and leasing services for the new ownership.