SPRINGFIELD, VA. — PS Business Parks Inc. (NYSE: PSB), a California-based office and industrial REIT, has acquired a portfolio of industrial properties totaling roughly 1.1 million square feet in northern Virginia. The purchase price was $143.3 million.
The portfolio consists of the 19 buildings located within the 813,725-square-foot Northern Virginia Industrial Park and the 241,000-square-foot Fullerton Industrial Park. Both of these developments, which span a combined 65 acres, are located in Springfield, about 15 miles southwest of Washington, D.C.
PS Business Parks already owns three industrial parks totaling 606,000 square feet in this area. Those properties have posted a historical average occupancy of 95 percent since 2000.
With the acquisition of these two properties, the company’s footprint in the Springfield/Newington submarket totals approximately 1.7 million square feet, roughly 11 percent of the submarket supply.
“We are confident that these properties will achieve the same occupancy and rent growth we have accomplished in our other locations in this market,” says Maria Hawthorne, president and CEO of PS Business Parks. “The location is superb as it is adjacent to Fort Belvoir and just south of the Pentagon in a densely populated area with excellent access to transportation.”
The average lease size at the newly acquired properties, which were 76 percent occupied at the time of sale, is roughly 6,800 square feet. The company plans to reposition the assets with near-term capital upgrades.
The acquisition was funded via 1031 exchange proceeds from three recent dispositions, as well as with basic cash on hand. The sellers were not disclosed, but Virginia-based MRP Realty developed both properties.
The stock price of PS Business Parks closed at $123.30 per share on Friday, June 8, down from $131.36 per share a year ago.
— Taylor Williams