INDIANAPOLIS — McNamara Florist has acquired a 176,000-square-foot industrial property in Indianapolis for an undisclosed sales price. The property is located on 7.3 acres at 1853 Ludlow Ave. The site of the florist’s new corporate headquarters will undergo extensive renovations. Occupancy is expected in the first half of 2016. The company headquarters currently occupies 58,000 square feet of leased space in Fishers, Ind. McNamara currently employs 120 people and the company will be relocating 70 of those positions to this facility. Bill French and Grant Lindley of DTZ represented McNamara in the property transaction. First Internet Bank provided financing for the acquisition and construction and Premier Capital Corp. provided a SBA 504 loan. April Hensley of Leech Hensley Architects will be the principal architect and Kort Builders will serve as the general contractor. McNamara also received a LISC façade improvement grant, which will be used to improve the exterior appearance of the building.
PISCATAWAY, N.J. — GTJ REIT has acquired a six-building industrial portfolio in Piscataway for $63.7 million. The properties are located off exits 6 and 7 of I-287 in the Rutgers’ area Route 287 submarket. The submarket contains 1,143 buildings, providing a total of 101.2 million square feet of industrial/manufacturing space. The buildings within the portfolio contain a total of 681,754 square feet. They are fully occupied by seven long-term tenants, including Nomura Securities and Verizon. The buildings are situated on a redundant power grid, providing tenants with two separate and distinct power sources, with backup power in times of emergency. “We are pleased to announce this acquisition, one of our largest completed deals to date,” says Paul Cooper, GTJ’s CEO. “The size and scale of this transaction reinforces our long-term commitment to expanding our footprint in the Northeast region. We believe the central New Jersey location, the power redundancy amenity and the strong occupancy of the Route 287 submarket make this a very attractive investment for our growing New Jersey portfolio.” The acquisition was funded by a combination of $25.5 million from the net proceeds of a recent portfolio refinancing by GTJ. The remaining $39.1 million was sourced from a …
MILWAUKEE — Mortara Family Properties LLC, doing business as Mortara Instrument, has purchased an 8,020–square-foot industrial building in Milwaukee. Glenbeigh Properties LLC sold the asset located at 8585 W. Bradley Road for an undisclosed sales price. Mortara Instruments supplies electrocardiography products to healthcare providers. The company owns the lot next to this property and plans to combine the two properties and build a new facility. James Young of DTZ Barry represented Glenbeigh Properties. Michael DeMichele of DeMichele Co. represented Mortara Instrument.
WIXOM, MICH. — Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF) has arranged the lease of a 117,709-square-foot manufacturing facility in Wixom. ATW Automation Inc. is relocating its Michigan manufacturing facility from 12841 Stark Road in Livonia, Mich., to this facility located at 31077 Durr Drive. The Ontario-based company designs and builds factory automation solutions. Anthony Avendt, Rob Renaud and Cam Graham of NGKF represented ATW in the lease. The building is situated on more than 12 acres and includes 27,800-square-feet of office and administrative space. ATW will take occupancy of the new facility immediately and is currently working with the city of Wixom to rename the street in honor of its long-term commitment to the community and its clients.
MONROE, OHIO — Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corp. has acquired a new 232,200-square-foot industrial building in Monroe for $13.4 million. The build-to-suit property is located at 201 Exploration Drive, and is net leased to UGN Inc., a supplier of parts for the Japanese automotive industry, for 15 years. The building is situated on more than 22 acres and is expandable by an additional 155,000 square feet. The Class A industrial facility is located off I-75 and is in close proximity to Honda and Toyota’s U.S. headquarters.
BEDFORD PARK, ILL. — Paine/Wetzel TCN Worldwide has arranged a 17,000-square-foot industrial lease in Bedford Park, a suburb of Chicago. Midway Window and Door will occupy space located at 5123 W. 65th St. The door and window manufacturer recently expanded into this second Bedford Park location. Midway Window and Door selected the location for its proximity to its main plant located at 6750 S. Belt Circle Road in Bedford Park. Bill Kerrins of Paine/Wetzel represented the tenant. Mumford Property, the building’s landlord, was self-represented.
BUFFALO GROVE, ILL. — Molto Properties has acquired 351 Hastings, a 68,735-square-foot industrial building in Buffalo Grove. This is the first existing asset acquisition for its newly launched Molto Properties Fund II. JLL’s Kurt Sarbaugh and Robin Stolberg sourced the opportunity and approached Molto Properties with the transaction. A private investor was the seller. The property is located in the Chevy Chase Business Park north of Lake Cook Road and west of Milwaukee Avenue near the Chevy Chase Country Club. The industrial property features a 24-foot ceiling height, ample car parking, six exterior docks and five drive-in doors.
Jack Daniels, FedEx and Gibson Guitar are a few international brands that already call Tennessee home, and the list has expanded over the past two years, as major brands have chosen to grow their operations in Middle Tennessee. Recent industrial relocations including Under Armour, Beretta and Hankook Tire are a few notable companies that chose Nashville over other major markets in the U.S. In addition, existing companies such as General Motors, FedEx and Nissan continue to expand their footprint in the region, creating more jobs and building larger facilities. All of this activity has created the demand for more site-ready properties that can accommodate build-to-suit projects and be delivered quickly. Nashville’s continued evolution as the South’s leading auto manufacturing hub, as well as its favorable central location, has bode well for the industrial market over the last few years. Favorable Fundamentals Nashville’s industrial market vacancy rate of 7.1 percent at the end of fourth-quarter 2014 is the lowest it has been since the fourth quarter of 2008, and the 2014 total net absorption has reached more than 2.25 million square feet, the highest absorption since 2006. This year is projected to be a banner year for new construction with multiple …
Austin is happening. The city was ranked No. 1 for small business growth by Forbes.com and No. 1 in Kiplinger Finance Magazine’s “10 Best Cities for the Next Decade.” Steady population growth has created demand for virtually all real estate product types in Austin. While the office market and vertical condo developments grab most of the headlines, the regional industrial real estate market has recovered significantly from the recession and is expanding in lock step with the overall economy. The Texas capital is now the 11th most populous city in the U.S. and the fourth largest in Texas. From a population of 132,459 in 1950, the city grew to 465,622 in 1990, 656,562 in 2000, 790,390 in 2010 and an estimated 865,504 today. More new industrial product was delivered in Austin last year, approximately 675,000 square feet, than any year since 2008. Another 550,000 square feet of industrial property is expected to deliver this year. In a market of 46 million square feet in total, these are robust years for industrial development. Net absorption for the year was 376,279 square feet, according to Xceligent. While positive, it was substantially less than the 887,544 square feet of net absorption in 2013. …
Industrial real estate market fundamentals in the Toledo, Ohio, area remained quite sound at the end of 2014. Most key indices showed stability or improvement. The most noteworthy statistic is the 2.3 million square feet of positive net absorption recorded in the second half of the year — the highest amount in recent memory. The lion’s share of the absorbed space can be attributed to the delivery of the 1.6 million-square-foot Home Depot warehouse in Troy Township. Even if the Home Depot deal is excluded from the data, the total absorption notched in the third and fourth quarters was impressive. Absorption would have been higher had the nearly 400,000-square-foot former Ace Hardware distribution center in Perrysburg Township not become vacant. In 2014, Ace announced that it would relocate its warehouse in the Columbus, Ohio area. Dearth of Suitable Space Despite the generally strong performance of the industrial real estate sector this past year, one senses that many of the players in the market are feeling some level of frustration. The frustration stems from the sentiment that things could be better — a result of the generally tight supply of buildings and the even tighter supply of the right types of …