Thursday, March 13, 2025
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
Grocery-anchored Bucks County shopping center sells for $21 million
By Paul Schwedelson – Reporter, Philadelphia Business Journal
The fully leased Bensalem Shopping Center has been acquired by a local private investor for $20.5 million, according to industry sources.
An entity affiliated with the Popli family purchased the 109,057-square-foot property from Philadelphia-based Empire Realty Investments Inc., sources said. The sale price comes out to $188 per square foot.
The grocery-anchored shopping center is at the intersection of Street Road and Hulmeville Road, in between the Bensalem Township Country Club and Cecelia Snyder Middle School. It sits 15 miles north of Center City Philadelphia.
Bensalem Shopping Center, built in 1972, sits on a 9-acre property at 1903 Street Road and is 100% leased. Grocery chain Patel Brothers anchors the retail center while other tenants include Dollar General, Advance Auto Parts and Unlimited PCS.
Chapman Popli, president of Popli Group LLC, didn't provide a comment on the acquisition. Popli owns First Stop Tobacco Shop, according to business insight website Dun & Bradstreet, and other properties in the Bensalem area. The shop is at 1606 Street Road, less than a half-mile south of the shopping center.
The property has a 6.4% cap rate.
Full story: http://tiny.cc/p64d001
Philadelphia’s small-bay industrial market retains strength despite climbing expenses
By Brenda Nguyen CoStar Analytics
Philadelphia's industrial market demonstrated resilience in early 2025, maintaining strong tenant demand despite the national slowdown in leasing activity. Vacancy rates rose as new inventory hit the market, but net absorption, the net change in occupancy, increased year-over-year. Key submarkets such as Burlington, New Castle and Bucks counties continued driving the region’s leasing momentum. Industrial properties also hit a four-year streak as the top investment choice regionally, by dollar volume. Against this backdrop, here’s what CoStar is hearing from players in the Philadelphia industrial market in early 2025.
Momentum for industrial spaces smaller than 300,000 square feet has been consistent, but leasing in larger buildings has been quite slow
One broker commented that small-bay facilities, those smaller than 100,000 square feet, are doing particularly well. The broker's team regularly gives site tours for tenants in this size segment. Meanwhile, the “home run” buildings have not received the traction landlords were hoping for in the past year. Based on CoStar data, only eight leases for more than 300,000 square feet have been signed in the past year, compared to nearly 700 leases for spaces smaller than 100,000 square feet.
Developers have delayed breaking ground on big-box developments but continue to move forward on warehouses ranging between 150,000 and 300,000 square feet
A couple of lenders mentioned they are becoming wary of financing large speculative industrial properties due to recent market saturation and higher vacancy rates in big-box facilities. Instead, they're favoring smaller industrial projects, perceived as less risky due to the consistency of demand. The concentration of smaller projects breaking ground reduced the volume of construction starts in the second half of 2024 to the lowest levels since 2018.
Several companies with leases in the city are seeking new locations in the suburbs following the surge in property taxes from recent reassessments
A handful of brokers commented that some industrial buildings in Northeast Philadelphia saw property taxes double following the city’s updated property assessments in recent years. Bucks County, as a bordering suburban submarket along I-95, has become a popular alternative location for tenants considering relocation.
Land prices have been a bigger deterrent than interest rates for new small-bay development
One developer mentioned that sellers are asking too much for their land, and it’s difficult to make the numbers pencil out with construction costs and achievable rents. Developers can work with higher interest rates, he says, but the cost basis makes many prospective projects not viable.
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Monday, March 10, 2025
New Jersey industrial leasing sped up in 2024
By Mateusz Wnek CoStar Analytics
As 2024 industrial leasing data collection winds down, New Jersey's full-year tally shows a 14% year-over-year increase in new commitments. Total deal counts rose 6% in the past year, while new lease sizes increased 7% to 31,000 square feet.
The state's new leasing volume totaled 38.2 million square feet in 2024, reflecting strong growth of over 60% in Bergen and Burlington counties. Middlesex County, by far the largest industrial node in the state, led the pack in absolute leasing volume with 10.3 million square feet, even though it was 5% below its 2023 level.
Middlesex County’s industrial inventory is 240.6 million square feet, nearly a quarter of the state’s total. The area enjoys ample highway access and proximity to the port district, allowing for quick movement of imports throughout the Tri-State area.
Much of Middlesex County’s inventory is clustered along the New Jersey Turnpike in Edison and Cranbury and around Interstate 287 in Piscataway. Yet Woodbridge’s Port Reading community was home to the largest new lease signed in 2024.
Last February, Elogistek, a supply chain solutions provider, committed to occupying the entire 607,417-square-foot warehouse at the Port Reading Business Park. The Prologis-owned property was previously used by Bed Bath & Beyond as an e-commerce fulfillment center until 2023.
Meanwhile, Burlington County led the league tables with leasing volume as a percentage of existing inventory. Landlords inked 5.3 million square feet of new commitments, representing almost 7% of the area’s 78.2-million-square-foot inventory.
CIRRO Fulfillment, a leading global e-commerce fulfillment service provider, was the most active tenant leasing space in Burlington County. In May, the company leased 286,180 square feet at the Burlington North Logistics Center in Mansfield. Then, in September, CIRRO occupied the entire 806,000-square-foot distribution facility down the road at the Mansfield Logistics Park.
At the other end of the spectrum, Essex County posted an 18% decline in leasing activity, driven largely by the lack of available small-bay space desired by local businesses. Properties smaller than 50,000 square feet make up 36% of Essex County’s 93 million-square-foot industrial stock, which can be found predominantly in Newark, Fairfield and Clifton.
The availability rate of small-bay space in Essex County is at just 3.6%, among the lowest in the state, while the rate is at 8% for spaces larger than 50,000 square feet.
Last year’s pickup in leasing activity was a welcome sight for property owners, as the state’s overall availability rate edged down to 10.9%. The counties that powered leasing volume this past year will be in the spotlight again in 2025.
That’s because Middlesex, Bergen and Burlington collectively have 52.5 million square feet of available space, accounting for 45% of New Jersey's total. Notable listings can be found in recently completed big-box distribution and warehouse properties in Old Bridge, Cinnaminson and Teterboro.
New King of Prussia retail building lists for $13.3M
By Paul Schwedelson – Reporter, Philadelphia Business Journal
A new 10,000-square-foot retail building facing the King of Prussia Mall is up for sale, an opportunity for a passive investor to own a property leased to at least two national chains.
The building at 129 S. Gulph Road is listed for $13.29 million, which equals $1,329 per square foot, a price per square foot that would rank among the highest in the region across commercial properties.
Construction on the 10,000-square-foot building is set to be completed by early summer, said MSC’s Jesse Dubrow, the property’s listing agent. Ten-year leases are in place for Mediterranean fast-casual chain Cava and breakfast and lunch chain restaurant First Watch, which both plan to open around the same time, Dubrow said. A tenant has not been signed for the third retail space.
The new development is owned by Wayne-based Gulph Creek Hotels and sits on the southwest corner of Gulph Road and Route 202, adjacent to the 136-room Residence Inn and 68-room The Prussia Hotel. MSC listing agent Douglas Green said 80,000 vehicles traverse the intersection daily, making it one of the busiest in Pennsylvania.
“The beauty of the asset, it checks every box that retailers look for,” Green said. “It’s an incredibly well-rounded site.”
A 168-room Best Western hotel previously sat on the property and was partially torn down to make room for the Residence Inn and the new retail building. The remaining portion of the Best Western was turned into The Prussia Hotel, a boutique hotel.
Gulph Creek Hotels intended to build the retail building and sell the property once it was completed. The project is just across Route 202 from the Simon Property Group-owned King of Prussia Mall and the planned Netflix House.
The two restaurants will be walkable from the two hotels, a key addition since neither hotel has an on-site restaurant.
“[Gulph Creek Hotels] was able to create a walkable, mixed-use site, which benefits the two hotels they’ve invested in,” Green said, “but also create an investment vehicle to get a return on their invested capital.”
Cava is set to take 2,100 square feet, First Watch is leasing 3,900 square feet and 4,000 square feet remains for a third tenant. Green, representing Gulph Creek Hotels in the leasing, said negotiations are ongoing for the third retail location.
Green said Gulph Creek Hotels is looking to avoid a third food and beverage tenant to manage crowds in the site’s parking lot. Instead, the space is likely to be leased to a tenant that provides a service to hotel guests and nearby residents.
Full story: http://tiny.cc/ontc001
