“There was a time when warehousing and distribution was just another part of the supply chain,” Sullivan told the Wall Street Journal on Monday. “Logistics has moved up in its importance in corporate strategy. The customer is more a part of the distribution than they were 10 or 15 years ago.”

The WSJ identified the Hillwood portfolio's locations as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Dallas, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Chicago. Its biggest tenants as Amazon.com Inc., Starbcks Corp., NFI, Williams-Sonoma and Wayfair Inc., according to the WSJ.

In a partnership with GIC, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore, GLP established itself as one of the biggest US industrial landlords with its $8.1-billion acquisition of the Blackstone Group's IndCor portfolio, a deal that closed in early 2015. Later that same year, GLP paid $4.6 billion to acquire 200 facilities from Industrial Income Trust, while in another large-scale portfolio deal in '15, Prologis bought KTR Capital Partners for $5.9 billion.

Citing data from Real Capital Analytics, the WSJ reported that year-to-date dollar volume in the industrial sector is off substantially from '15, when deal volume totaled $78 billion. Thus far this year, it's just $29.2 billion. A JLL report late last month attributed this to a greater emphasis on single-asset transactions this year, with portfolio deals representing just 26% of total deal volume, GlobeSt.com's Brian Rogal reported.

“Last year was all about the national portfolio business, but that inventory has dwindled during the first six months of 2016, leading investors to act increasingly on a single-asset basis,” John Huguenard, JLL international director and head of the Americas industrial capital markets platform, said in August. “Single-asset transactions are exceptional investments but require buyers to complete considerably more transactions to place the same amount of capital.”

CHICAGO—In its third 10-figure acquisition domestically and the largest in the sector thus far in 2016, GLP has agreed to acquire a $1.1-billion US logistics portfolio from Ross Perot Jr.'s Hillwood Development Co. LLC. The deal will close in two tranches, and as it did with the former IndCor and Industrial Income Trust portfolios, GLP will syndicate most of its equity stake in the Hillwood properties.

“The portfolio being acquired from Hillwood is one of the highest quality logistics real estate portfolios in the US,” says Chuck Sullivan, president and COO of GLP US. “This transaction, which will be immediately accretive to GLP, demonstrates our ability to leverage our existing platform to pursue enhanced network benefits in the strongest US markets.”

Ten million of the 15 million square feet in the portfolio, which is concentrated in key markets that are expected to benefit from the e-commerce boom, is expected to be acquired by the end of the fourth quarter. The remainder, valued at approximately $400 million, will be acquired in phases upon completion and full lease-up. When the deal is completed, it will bring GLP's US portfolio to approximately 187 million square feet, solidifying its position as the country's second largest logistics owner-operator after Prologis.

GLP plans to fund the deal with $470 million of equity and $635 million of debt, with the equity commitment funded out of cash on hand and existing credit facilities. The company expects strong investor interest in syndication of the stake, which will bring its equity commitment down to $47 million.

“There was a time when warehousing and distribution was just another part of the supply chain,” Sullivan told the Wall Street Journal on Monday. “Logistics has moved up in its importance in corporate strategy. The customer is more a part of the distribution than they were 10 or 15 years ago.”

The WSJ identified the Hillwood portfolio's locations as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Dallas, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Chicago. Its biggest tenants as Amazon.com Inc., Starbcks Corp., NFI, Williams-Sonoma and Wayfair Inc., according to the WSJ.

In a partnership with GIC, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore, GLP established itself as one of the biggest US industrial landlords with its $8.1-billion acquisition of the Blackstone Group's IndCor portfolio, a deal that closed in early 2015. Later that same year, GLP paid $4.6 billion to acquire 200 facilities from Industrial Income Trust, while in another large-scale portfolio deal in '15, Prologis bought KTR Capital Partners for $5.9 billion.

Citing data from Real Capital Analytics, the WSJ reported that year-to-date dollar volume in the industrial sector is off substantially from '15, when deal volume totaled $78 billion. Thus far this year, it's just $29.2 billion. A JLL report late last month attributed this to a greater emphasis on single-asset transactions this year, with portfolio deals representing just 26% of total deal volume, GlobeSt.com's Brian Rogal reported.

“Last year was all about the national portfolio business, but that inventory has dwindled during the first six months of 2016, leading investors to act increasingly on a single-asset basis,” John Huguenard, JLL international director and head of the Americas industrial capital markets platform, said in August. “Single-asset transactions are exceptional investments but require buyers to complete considerably more transactions to place the same amount of capital.”