MINNESOTA AND NORTH DAKOTA — The LeClaire-Schlosser Group of Marcus & Millichap has brokered the sale of the Storage Max Portfolio, a seven-property self-storage portfolio located across Minnesota and North Dakota. The portfolio totals 382 non-climate-controlled units and 48,710 net rentable square feet. Chris Kampmeyer and Adam Schlosser of Marcus & Millichap’s Denver office marketed the portfolio on behalf of the seller, a local limited liability company. Neither the buyer nor the sales price was disclosed.
For years, “just in time” has been the key to driving efficiency of retailers and manufacturers alike. This model by and large combined low-cost production in Asian markets supported by speedy air carrier distribution to move goods while holding minimal cushion for backup stock. Post-pandemic thinking could bring that epoch to an end. The crisis has underscored our distribution networks’ fragility, which are now vulnerable to closed facilities, ports and borders. Many businesses are planning major restructuring of their supply chain processes due to the disruptions that we all have endured in recent months. The new model based on quick recovery will likely be driven by resiliency that ensures adequate merchandise availability in the event of threats to a business’ supply chain stability. This will require more warehouse and distribution space to store goods for deliveries in last-mile markets. The noticeable effects continue to grow as more last-mile oriented warehouse space is leased closer to the end-user. Industrial users see the impact of the pandemic as a short-term challenge that is altering the long-term growth strategy of their corporate planning. By way of example, Publix’s Southeast store sales climbed 21.8 percent for the second quarter of this year. Grocery now …
GRAND PRAIRIE, TEXAS — Lee & Associates has negotiated a 164,000-square-foot industrial lease at 927 W. Carrier Parkway in the central metroplex city of Grand Prairie. Mark Graybill and Colton Rhodes of Lee & Associates represented the landlord, LINK Industrial, in the lease negotiations. David Eseke of Cushman & Wakefield represented the tenant, Wizards of the Coast, LLC, a publisher of role-playing games that previously operated retail stores.
TUSTIN AND SAN DIEGO, CALIF. — Padma Laxmi LLC has purchased a medical office property in Tustin and an industrial facility in San Diego for a total consideration for $43.6 million. An affiliate of Cress Capital sold the medical office asset located at 2742 Dow Ave. in Tustin. Built in 1979, the two-story property features 51,588 square feet of medical office space. Doctor’s Best, a nutritional supplement company, occupies the entire building under a sublease from Orange County-based MemorialCare. Anthony DeLorenzo, Gary Stache, Bryan Johnson, Todd Tydlaska and Doug Mack of CBRE represented the seller, while Richard Schwartz of Colliers International and Jim DeRegt of Lee & Associates represented the buyer. Additionally, Padma Laxmi purchased an 85,824-square-foot industrial facility located at 10054 Old Groove Road in San Diego’s Scripps Ranch neighborhood. Manscaped, a start-up online shaving company, will occupy the property, which was vacant at the time of acquisition. Originally built in 1971, the facility was renovated in 2018. Trevor Damyan of CBRE’s downtown Los Angeles office arranged a $28.3 million, 10-year, fixed-rate loan for the acquisition of both properties on behalf of the buyer.
GOODYEAR, ARIZ. — Cushman & Wakefield has arranged the sale of Arizona Storage Center, a self-storage facility located at 18211 W. McDowell Road in Goodyear. FRC Goodyear sold the property to a private investor for an undisclosed price. The 54,976-square-foot property features 424 units, including 175 RV/boat storage spaces. The buyer plans to convert the RV/boat storage area into covered spaces. The property features 59 percent self-storage units and 41 percent RV/boat storage spaces. Paul Boyle and Rick Danis of Cushman & Wakefield’s Self Storage Advisory Group in Phoenix represented the seller in the deal.
Magnus Development Starts Construction on 192,780 SF Industrial Building in Columbia, South Carolina
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Magnus Development has started construction on Midway Logistics VI, a 192,780-square-foot industrial building in Columbia. The spec warehouse is situated within Lexington County Industrial Park, near downtown Columbia and five miles from Interstate 20. The building will feature 32-foot clear heights, trailer parking, ESFR sprinklers and motion-sensor LED lighting. Magnus plans to complete the building in second-quarter 2021. Chuck Salley, Dave Mathews, Thomas Beard and John Peebles of Colliers International will handle the leasing and marketing efforts for the property. In March of this year, Magnus delivered Midway Logistics IV, a 200,000-square-foot building. Colliers arranged a 150,000-square-foot lease to TreeHouse Foods in September. Additionally, Magnus is developing Midway Logistics V, a 180,000-square-foot facility within the same business park.
CLEARWATER, FLA. — Cedarwood Development has delivered a 585-unit US Storage Centers-branded facility in Clearwater. The self-storage property is situated at 1000 S. Myrtle Ave., 23 miles west of downtown Tampa. Westport Properties Inc. is managing the asset, which features climate-controlled units, passenger elevators, moving carts and drive-up units. The facility comprises 60,000 square feet. This is the first facility in Clearwater for both Fairlawn, Ohio-based Cedarwood Development, which is an affiliate of Cedarwood Cos., and US Storage Centers. US Storage Centers has more than 10 million square feet in its nationwide portfolio.
TAMPA, FLA. — JLL has arranged the $31.8 million sale of Breckenridge Park, a 15-building industrial campus in eastern Tampa. The asset comprises 334,000 square feet and is situated at 5402-5460 Breckenridge Parkway, nine miles east of downtown Tampa. The buildings were developed between 1982 and 1998. Bret Felberg, Jeff Morris, John Dunphy and Peter Cecora of JLL represented the seller, MLG/PF Breckenridge Investment LLC, which is affiliated with MLG Capital. A joint venture partnership between The Arden Group and Avistone purchased the asset. Jillian Mariutti, Brian Gaswirth, Michael DiCosimo and Drew Jennewein, also with JLL, arranged a $26.3 million acquisition loan through BlackRock on behalf of the buyer. The joint venture will use a portion of the proceeds to implement a capital improvement plan.
By Taylor Williams As commercial property types go, self-storage is considered one of the toughest to sink in times of economic hardship. As Texas and the United States enter the eighth full month of the COVID-19 pandemic, this quality is beginning to show through. Natural disasters like floods and hurricanes tend to be windfalls for the asset class, as displacement from homes and damage to commercial properties raise short-term demand for self-storage. A pandemic does not have quite the same effect on the property type, especially when residential landlords in the United States are legally barred from evicting tenants. But for the major self-storage markets of Texas, COVID-19 has generated some positive results. COVID’s impact on self-storage is somewhat similar to Hurricane Harvey’s impact on the Houston multifamily market in 2017, which was also overbuilt and saw an overnight boost in occupancy as a result of the storm cutting into supply. In essence, COVID-19 has served as a mechanism to bring supply-demand balances closer to equilibrium. Because prior to the pandemic, the development pipelines in the major cities of Texas were peaking, creating oversupplied markets that were defined by sluggish rent growth, concessions and high levels of competitions for new …
DALLAS — The Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) industrial market posted a vacancy rate of 6.5 percent to close the third quarter while seeing its 11-year streak of positive quarterly absorption remain intact, according to a new report from Newmark Knight Frank (NKF). Though overall vacancy is up 30 basis points from a year ago, the metroplex absorbed approximately 3.6 million square feet of space in the most recent quarter, down just 7 percent from that period in 2019. This activity indicates that industrial users are still attracted to the market’s exceptional job and population growth despite the recession-inducing COVID-19 pandemic. While third-quarter net absorption was also down from the second quarter of this year, industrial users and owners transacted more leases (604) in that period, up from 486 deals during the previous quarter. Among the largest deals inked in the third quarter were Uline’s 1.1 million-square-foot lease in Las Colinas, Amazon’s 1 million-square-foot lease in southeast Dallas and HelloFresh’s 375,000-square-foot lease, also in Las Colinas. Year-to-date, the market has already absorbed more than 17 million square feet of industrial space. The report pegged the amount of industrial product under construction at roughly 28.3 million square feet, but with vacancy up 300 …