Best Industrial Sale | First Place | 4700 Island Ave.
4700 Island Ave., Philadelphia
When InterPark Holdings put 4700 Island Ave. in Philadelphia up for sale, the company had decided the property’s future lay beyond serving as off-site parking for those flying in and out of Philadelphia International Airport. The 271,000-square-foot building on nearly 19 acres had originally been developed decades ago as a refrigeration facility before InterPark operated it as a parking lot for more than 20 years. Once put up for sale, there were nearly 200 non-disclosure agreements signed in pursuit of the property, more than 40 offers and multiple rounds of bidding. Prologis Inc., an industrial real estate behemoth, paid $45 million for the property. This was the highest sale for a Philadelphia industrial development site nearing $2.3 million an acre. The transaction underscored the heightened state of the industrial market, where a seemingly insatiable demand for warehouse-distribution space is sending prices soaring — particularly for sites well located near highways and airports.
Size: 271,000 square feet on 19 acres
Value: $45 million
Buyer: Prologis Inc.
Seller: InterPark Holdings
Brokers: Ryan Guittare, Mike Margolis, David Dolan, Cris Abramson, Ben McCarty and Cris Signor of Newmark represented the seller
Best Industrial Sale | Second Place | Pennsauken Logistics Center at 9000 River Road
9000 River Road, Pennsauken, New Jersey
Velocity Venture Partners paid $32 million for 9000 River Road, a roughly 600,000-square-foot former manufacturing facility in Pennsauken, New Jersey. With the acquisition of one of the largest standalone buildings in Pennsauken, Velocity became the largest industrial landlord in the township, which is Camden County’s densest industrial submarket. The Bala Cynwyd real estate company bought the former Aluminum Shapes Inc. property through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy sale in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for New Jersey. Aluminum Shapes had filed for bankruptcy protection in August. Velocity plans to lease the space to both distribution and manufacturing tenants.
Size: 600,000 square feet
Value: $32 million
Buyer: Velocity Venture Partners
Seller: Aluminum Shapes
Best Industrial Deal - Execution | First Place | King of Prussia Logistics Hub
900 River Road, King of Prussia
Novaya Foxfield entered the Philadelphia market in 2019 with the purchase of the former Johnson Matthey Inc. chemical plant at 900 River Road in Upper Merion. It cleaned up the site and moved ahead with the development of a 331,525-square-foot distribution center on 29 acres on speculation. It secured a 10-year lease with Target Corp. while the structure was under construction. It sold the building for $115 million, or $346.88 a square foot. The project had a record lease rate and sale on a per-square-foot basis.
Size: 331,525 square feet
Value: $40 million for the lease; $115 million for the sale
Buyer: Torchlight Investors
Seller: Foxfield Industrial and Drake Partners
Tenant: Target Corp.
Developer: Foxfield Industrial and Drake Partners
Lender: Cottonwood Management/Axos Bank
Designer: ARCO Design/Build Industrial
Architect: ARCO Design/Build Industrial
Lawyer: Day Pitney
Brokers: Drew Green, Brad Ruppel, Paul Touhey, Brian Fiumara, Mike Hines, Dan McGovern and Scott Miller of CBRE Inc.
Best Industrial Deal - Complexity | First Place | Philadelphia Gas Works Northeast Operations Center
5000 Summerdale Ave., Philadelphia
Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) signed a 25-year lease valued at $68.9 million for a new 255,000-square-foot operations center at 5000 Summerdale Ave. in Northeast Philadelphia. NorthPoint Development of Kansas City, Missouri, owns the property where the facility will be built and will develop the building. The finalized lease needed to be signed off on by three different city entities and brought to a close a process that began about a decade ago but had stalled. Four years ago, the effort for PGW to consolidate multiple existing facilities into a strategically located operations center picked back up and faced several challenges before finally getting done. In its quest to find a location, PGW initially pursued buying 5501 Whitaker Ave., which was owned by Cardone Industries. The auto reclamation company was planning at the time to vacate a 1.2-million-square-foot building on the 60-acre property. It was more space than PGW needed but the site’s location in Northeast Philadelphia was ideal. In the end, PGW was outbid. NorthPoint bought the Whitaker Avenue property for $30.5 million and that forced the gas company to switch gears and pursue a new building and lease.
Size: 255,000 square feet on 26 acres
Value: $68.9 million
Tenant: Philadelphia Gas Works
Developer: NorthPoint Development
Landlord: NorthPoint Development
Broker: Brian Edmonds of Greenwood Commercial Real Estate Group