W.P. Carey Completes 245,600-SF Sale/Leaseback Deal

NEW YORK CITY-Sale/leaseback specialist W.P. Carey & Co. LLC has acquired an industrial/office portfolio comprising four properties from Minneapolis-based PW Eagle Inc. The plastics manufacturer and distributor sold the assets for roughly $13.7 million and will lease them back under a 20-year bond-type net lease.

The four properties total 245,600 sf and include three manufacturing facilities and an office building. The industrial assets include a 91,000-sf plant in Tacoma, WA; a 64,000-sf facility in West Jordan, UT and a 67,000-sf factory in Perris, CA. The office property is a 23,000-sf building in Eugene, OR.The facilities were purchased on behalf of Corporate Property Associates 14, one of W.P. Carey’s $3.5-billion group of publicly held, non-traded REITs. CPA 14 invests in single-tenant commercial properties, typically purchased under long-term triple-net leases in which the tenants are responsible for maintaining the premises, insuring the buildings and paying real estate taxes.

“This transaction will provide PW Eagle with more than $13 million in financing to fund key corporate initiatives,” says Edward V. LaPuma, Executive Director at W. P. Carey. “In today’s tightening credit markets, private equity firms, like Spell Capital Partners, are realizing how a sale-leaseback can benefit their portfolio companies by raising capital from an otherwise depreciating asset. Over the past 12 months, more than half of our acquisitions have been with private equity firms. We expect this trend to continue in 2002 as more private equity and buyout firms realize the ease of sale/leaseback financing, which effectively converts the bricks and mortar of their portfolio companies into cash.”