ALTOONA, IOWA — VanTrust Real Estate is developing Altus Commerce Center on 75 acres in Altoona. The project represents VanTrust’s first in Iowa. Construction on the first building is expected to commence within the next few weeks with completion slated for the second quarter of 2022. Building A will span 265,200 square feet with 148 parking spaces, unit heaters and LED interior lighting. Marcus Pitts, Austin Hedstrom and Tanner Hedstrom of JLL will lead leasing efforts.
KNIGHTDALE, N.C. — Merritt Properties plans to build a light industrial business park in Knightdale, a metro Raleigh market near Interstates 540 and 87. The company bought 35 acres off Hinton Oaks Boulevard in the East Wake County town for $2.5 million. The development, known as Merritt Midway Business Park, will include up to five flex and light industrial buildings totaling 271,450 square feet. Properties will range from 28,800 to 84,700 square feet and feature 18-foot clear heights, with leasable bays starting at approximately 3,300 square feet. Merritt expects to deliver the park during the fourth quarter of 2021. Merritt Midway Business Park should help satisfy pent-up demand for industrial space as the northeast Wake County submarket is 95 percent occupied and has seen 4.4 percent rent growth over the past 12 months. Barry Bowling of CBRE represented Merritt in the land transaction, and Jimmy Barnes of NAI Tri Properties represented the undisclosed seller. Barnes, Ed Brown and Michael Wallace of NAI Tri Properties will help oversee leasing for Merritt Midway Business Park. Baltimore-based Merritt owns 736,740 square feet of flex/light industrial product across two developments in the Raleigh-Durham area. The company’s first project, Merritt TW Crossing in Durham, delivered …
MCALLEN, TEXAS — DRA Advisors, a New York City-based investment firm, has purchased a 210,000-square-foot industrial facility in the Rio Grande Valley city of McAllen. The property sits on 12 acres and features 27-foot clear heights and 120-foot truck court depths. More than 60 percent of the space is utilized for cold storage. Tom Duke and Donald Flynn of Elegran Capital & Advisory represented DRA Advisors and the seller in the off-market transaction.
CARROLLTON, TEXAS — Newmark has negotiated a 28,576-square-foot industrial lease expansion at 1125 Hayden Drive in the northern Dallas suburb of Carrollton. According to LoopNet Inc., the property was built in 1981 and totals 77,486 square feet. Garrett Gibbons Jr., Trace Elrod, Reggie Beavan III, Andy Iversen, Chris Mason, John Beach and Jack Brewer of Newmark represented the tenant, Packaging Solutions Inc., in the lease negotiations. Holt Lunsford Commercial represented the landlord, an entity doing business as MP Acquiport Industrial LLC.
GOULDSBORO, PA. — Atlanta-based investment firm MDH Partners has acquired a 390,000-square-foot industrial property in Gouldsboro, located outside of Scranton. Built in 2002, the property was fully leased to Broadrange Logistics at the time of sale. Building features include a clear height of 30 feet, 42 dock doors, 130-foot truck court depths and an ESFR sprinkler system. The new ownership plans to expand the property by 160,000 square feet, with construction set to begin in the first quarter of next year. The seller was Exeter Property Group. Nick Murphy of Eastdil Secured brokered the deal.
MILFORD, CONN. — Valley Tool & Manufacturing LLC has acquired 8.1 acres in Milford, located in the southern coastal part of the state, for the development of a 100,000-square-foot industrial facility. Jon Angel of Angel Commercial LLC represented Valley Tool & Manufacturing in its site selection and acquisition of the land assemblage, which consists of seven parcels that were purchased in two separate transactions. Construction is underway, and the facility is expected to open by the end of the year.
By Taylor Williams Demand for industrial space continues to surge throughout New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania, prompting developers to undertake more projects on a speculative basis and avail themselves to the classic mantra of “If you build it, they will come.” E-commerce users, spanning every industry from building materials to electronics to food, continue to spearhead the demand side of the equation. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2020, a year in which a global health crisis spurred furious increases in online shopping, e-commerce sales accounted for 14.4 percent of all retail sales, up from 7.3 percent in 2015. That figure is expected to grow to nearly 20 percent by 2024. Lenders are eager to finance speculative industrial projects, and developers are scouring the Mid-Atlantic for viable sites as spec projects increasingly account for bigger portions of their portfolios. “Pre-COVID, and even dating back several years, you might see 20 percent of the Mid-Atlantic industrial projects being done as build-to-suits,” says Rob Borny, senior vice president of capital deployment and head of the East Region for Nevada-based Dermody Properties. “It’s now moving toward being significantly less [build-to-suit activity] due to robust tenant demand, as well as the shorter lead …
MESA, ARIZ. — Marwest Enterprises, as developer, and Willmeng Construction, as general contractor, have broken ground on a 235,000-square-foot build-to-suit industrial facility for Canada-based ElectraMeccanica Vehicles Corp., a Canada-based designer and manufacturer of environmentally efficient electric vehicles. The facility will feature an assembly line and manufacturing plant, research center, 22,000-square-foot office space and 19,000 square feet of lab space. ElectraMaccanica will lease the building from Marwest Enterprises. Ware Malcomb is serving as architect and Hunter Engineering is serving as engineer for the project. Situated on 18 acres adjacent to the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, the facility will have the production capacity of up to 20,000 vehicles per year and employ 200 to 500 people. Completion is slated for spring 2022.
ELK GROVE VILLAGE, ILL. — Colliers International Chicago has brokered the sale of a 146,029-square-foot industrial building in Elk Grove Village, a northwest suburb of Chicago. The sales price was undisclosed. Completed in 2020 and located at 500 E. Devon Ave., the property features a clear height of 32 feet. The facility was 71 percent leased to three tenants at the time of sale. Colliers will continue to represent the new ownership in marketing the vacancy for lease. Jeff Devine and Steve Disse of Colliers represented the seller, CA Ventures. A fund managed by Goldman Sachs was the buyer.
NORWOOD, MASS. — JLL has brokered the $7.4 million sale of a 44,406-square-foot industrial property in Norwood, a southern suburb of Boston. The facility was built in 1980 and was fully leased to computer hardware manufacturer Source Code at the time of sale. Matthew Sherry and Michael Restivo of JLL represented the seller, Arris Partners LLC, in the transaction. The buyer was locally based investment firm Berkeley Partners.
