Thursday, December 24, 2020
Monday, December 21, 2020
Global Investor KKR Makes Entry Into Major East Coast Logistics Market Lehigh Valley
International investment firm KKR made its entry into Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley market with its acquisition of a distribution warehouse that opened last year and is leased to one of the nation’s largest logistics and trucking companies.
The New York-based firm bought the 600,238-square-foot property at 30 Ludwig Court in Shoemakersville, Pennsylvania, from developer The Keith Corporation, according to CoStar research and a statement from KKR.
The price was not disclosed. The average sale price of industrial properties in the Lehigh Valley area is $85 per square foot, according to CoStar. At that rate, the property would be valued at $51 million.
Ryder Integrated Logistics, a division of Miami-based logistics and trucking company Ryder, occupies the entire property, according to CoStar research. Ryder operates more than 300 warehouses spanning 55 million square feet across the nation, according to its website.
This is KKR’s first industrial purchase in Pennsylvania’s sprawling Lehigh Valley, which is the state's third-largest metropolitan area and has 132 million square feet of industrial space.
The property sits roughly 70 miles northwest of Philadelphia and 120 miles from New York City. The Lehigh Valley's proximity to those cities as well as Boston has helped to establish the area as a significant East Coast logistics market.
“Some of the biggest names in logistics occupy millions of square feet here."
In the past 10 years, Walmart, Amazon, Kellogg’s and Nestle have all signed industrial leases for more than 1 million square feet in the area, according to CoStar research.
Dow Chemical Site to Become Distribution Campus in East Philadelphia
Industrial developer DH Property Holdings plans to build a sprawling last-mile distribution campus on the site of a former chemical plant in Philadelphia.
The company and its capital partner acquired a 69-acre parcel of land at 5000 Richmond St. that once housed a chemical refinery owned by Dow Inc., according to CoStar research and a statement from commercial real estate financing firm Walker & Dunlop. It plans to develop a 733,800-square-foot distribution campus on the land.
The land acquisition and development represent a capitalization of more than $115 million, according to the statement.
The Rohm and Haas Philadelphia Plant operated on the site from 1920 until 2011, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Rohm and Haas, a chemical manufacturer, was acquired by Dow in 2009, after which Dow assumed control of the plant until its closure. The plant was demolished in 2011, and Dow listed it for sale this year.
A construction timeline was not disclosed. The distribution center is planned in Northeast Philadelphia, where logistics properties account for approximately 10.5 million of the area’s 13.9 million square feet of space.
The region has also maintained a tight vacancy rate of 4.5%.
There is also no new industrial product underway in the area, which could allow the new development to capture some of the steady demand that remains in the Northeast.
King of Prussia flex building trades for more than $9M
by Natalie Kostelni Reporter Philadelphia Business Journal
Velocity Venture Partners has paid $9.3 million for 780 Fifth Ave., a 97,000-square-foot flex building in King of Prussia.
The acquisition is one of a series that Velocity has made this year as it spent $150 million to double its industrial holdings in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The company bought 2 million square feet across 21 buildings and now owns a portfolio totaling 4 million square feet.
Among its acquisitions this year was 771 Fifth Ave., a 30,300-square-foot building next door to its latest acquisition; a 667,019-square-foot industrial building at 2750 Morris Road in the Lansdale area; and several buildings in Pennsauken, New Jersey, including a 37,856-square-foot warehouse facility located at 2301 Haddonfield Road.
Full Story: https://tinyurl.com/y7dawou4
