GAINESVILLE, GA. — Cottrell, a locally based trailer manufacturer, will build a second manufacturing facility in Gainesville valued at $125 million. The 500,000-square-foot facility will serve as the Cottrell’s North Campus, adjacent to its existing South Campus in Hall County. Cottrell, which specializes in manufacturing trailers that haul cars (or auto haulers), opened its first facility in 1973 at 2125 Candler Road in Gainesville. The company expects land development and facility construction to take 24 to 30 months to complete and plans to break ground during the third quarter of 2021. Certain aspects of production will be transferred to the new North Campus facility when complete, while the existing buildings of the South Campus will be used to support future business growth. Cottrell currently employs more than 1,000 people at its Gainesville facility, and it is looking to hire more after the second facility is built. Kristi Brigman of Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) represented the Global Commerce Division on this project in partnership with the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce, the City of Gainesville and Jackson EMC.
PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Bob’s Discount Furniture has signed a 622,230-square-foot industrial lease at 150 Old New Brunswick Road in Piscataway, located in Northern New Jersey. The facility is currently under construction and is expected to be complete this summer. Building features will include 40-foot clear heights, 125 dock doors, 302 automobile parking spaces and 127 trailer parking spaces. Scott Belfer of CBRE represented the tenant in the lease negotiations. Chuck Fern, Thomas Tucci, Frank Truesdell, Jason Barton and Stephen Shoemaker of Cushman & Wakefield, along with internal agents Cait English and Ben Rosen, represented the landlord, Duke Realty.
RICHMOND, CALIF. — McShane Construction Co. has broken ground for the development of 500 Pittsburg Avenue, an industrial project located in Richmond. Owned by Black Creek Group, the development will feature a 481,500-square-foot distribution center situated on a 34-acre site near the intersection of Pittsburg Avenue and Richmond Parkway. The facility will include concrete tiltwall panel exterior with storefront windows, 36-foot clear heights, 84 truck doors, four drive-in doors, seven-inch concrete slab floors and ESFR sprinklers. For the first phase of the project, McShane completed extensive ground improvements, including wick drains, deep dynamic compaction and grading. The company will also widen Richmond Parkway and Pittsburg Avenue and add turn lanes and traffic signals. HPA is serving as architect of record for the project, which is slated for completion in November 2021.
BRASELTON, GA. — Lee & Associates’ Atlanta office has arranged a 589,680-square-foot industrial lease at Park 85 Business Park in Braselton. Billy Snowden, Rick Tumlin and Mike Sutter of Lee & Associates represented the tenant, California-based Comptree Inc., in the lease transaction. Bob Currie, Brad Pope and Reed Davis of JLL represented the landlord, Los Angeles-based CBRE Global Investors. The newly built facility is located at 1380 Jesse Cronic Road in Atlanta’s I-85 Northeast submarket. This is the third Atlanta facility for Comptree, which specializes in the acquisition and distribution of furniture, outdoor accessories and printer media. The company supports e-commerce via websites Meritline and ABCink.
HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. — JLL has arranged a $12.6 million construction loan for 130 Commerce Center, a 171,000-square-foot speculative industrial project that is a redevelopment of a retail strip center in Central New Jersey’s Hamilton Township. Slated for a third-quarter completion, the property will feature 36-foot clear heights and 50 trailer parking stalls. Michael Klein and Max Custer of JLL arranged the floating-rate financing through an undisclosed lender on behalf of the borrower, a partnership between Penwood Real Estate Investment Management LLC and Metrix Real Estate Services LLC.
STRATFORD, CONN. — Locally based investment firm The Marsilio Group has sold a two-building, 60,353-square-foot distribution center in Stratford, located in the southern part of the state. The property was built on 3.8 acres in 1952 and is leased to four tenants, including anchor tenant FedEx. Colin Couch of Stan Johnson Co. represented the seller in the transaction. Dave Richard of Colliers International represented the buyer, a New York-based 1031 exchange investor. The deal traded for $6.1 million at a cap rate of 6.8 percent.
By Taylor Williams The decision by Institutional Property Advisors (IPA), a division of Marcus & Millichap, to recently bring its investment sales services for the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) industrial market not only represents an opportunity to gain share of a booming market, but also to capitalize on a pronounced shift in buying patterns. COVID-19 has drastically accelerated demand for e-commerce services and industrial space on the leasing front. As investors that put new acquisitions on hold early in the pandemic regain their aggressiveness and as more capital sources diversify into the asset class, the line between requirements for institutional and private investors is growing blurrier. Ultimately, the shift in investment philosophy for industrial product in major markets boils down to private buyers targeting assets that have typically been considered institutional quality. This trend is a factor of several marketplace tendencies: the cautiousness with which institutional capital proceeds, the willingness of private investors to accept lower returns and the general mixing up of the Tier 1 industrial buyer pool. Like demand for industrial product from both tenants and the capital markets, the creeping of private buyers into the institutional space was taking place before the pandemic. But the overlap has become …
HOUSTON — Dallas-based investment firm Sealy & Co. has acquired a 663,821-square-foot warehouse and distribution building located at the intersection of McCarty Drive and Loop 610 in northeast Houston. The rail-served property is situated on 40 acres and features 200 trailer parking spaces with additional expansion capacity. Tom Lynch and Faron Wiley of CBRE, along with Scott Sealy Jr. and Jason Gandy of Sealy & Co., handled the transaction on behalf of the buyer. First Industrial Real Estate Trust sold the asset for an undisclosed price.
TULSA, OKLA. — Cushman & Wakefield has brokered the sale of Tulsa Hills Storage, a self-storage facility that consists of 71 climate-controlled units, 176 non-climate-controlled units and 19 parking spaces for a total of 266 storage options. Trey Hammond, Mike Mele and Luke Elliott of Cushman & Wakefield represented the sellers, Paul Korte, Brett Biery, Anthony Isler and McAuley Properties LLC, in the transaction. Attic @ Tulsa Hills LLC acquired the property for an undisclosed price.
SOUTHLAKE, TEXAS — Locally based brokerage firm Holt Lunsford Commercial has negotiated a 19,451-square-foot industrial lease at Southlake Business Park, located on the outskirts of Fort Worth. Matt Carthey, George Jennings and Hogan Harrison of Holt Lunsford represented the landlord in the lease negotiations. Joe Santaularia of Bradford Commercial represented the tenant, American Bear Logistics.