(Read more on the industrial market.)
WEISENBERG TWP., PA-Higgins Development Partners has sold an 11-acre parcel at 9729 Commerce Circle in Arcadia West Industrial Park to Palram Arcadia Real Estate Holdings, a special-purpose entity of Israel-based Palram Industries Inc. Palram Americas, which set down stakes in the park with a 40,000-sf facility in 2000, plans to construct a 120,000-sf warehouse.
Gerald Moore, managing director of the Chatham, NJ-based Garibaldi Group/Corfac International, first introduced Palram to the 250-acre industrial park, and he is also a member of the Garibaldi team that negotiated the most recent land sale on behalf of Chicago-based Higgins. Between 2000 and now, Palram has expanded to approximately 100,000 sf here, all in owned properties.
Therefore, "it was logical for the company to plan its new distribution facility expansion near its existing properties," says Michael Bartolacci, SVP of Garibaldi. He, along with president Jeffrey Garibaldi and Moore, negotiated the land sale on Higgins' behalf.
Bartolacci declines to disclose the cost of the land, but tells GlobeSt.com, "land sales in the Lehigh Valley range between $175,000 a acre and $125,000 an acre." Such pricing would take the tag of this sale to between about $1.9 million and $1.4 million. According to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity, construction of distribution facilities typically cost approximately $55 per sf.
Palram, which is based in Israel, makes Suntuf corrugated polycarbonate building panels and has operations in 15 countries worldwide. Having been instrumental in bringing Palram to Arcadia West, Moore says, "we're glad to see their expansion of business in the Lehigh Valley."
Bartolacci says the land sale was "a win-win scenario for both Palram and Higgins. This transaction reflects the strength and demand for industrial property in the Lehigh Valley marketplace."
Higgins currently has more than 6.2 million sf of development under way in Eastern Pennsylvania, including a 603,000-sf warehouse/distribution center on 46 acres in Carlisle and a 400,000-sf distribution center in Humboldt Industrial Park in Hazelton. These are in addition to its development rights to 70 acres in Crestwood Industrial Park in Mountain Top where it just completed a 503,000-sf PepsiCo build-to-suit, as GlobeSt.com recently reported, and here in Arcadia West where it just completed a 385,000-sf facility at 9747 Commerce Circle. Gene Preston, Higgins' SVP, says, "we look forward to continuing our development activity in the Lehigh Valley."
Preston is based in Higgins's Morristown, NJ office. Garibaldi has an office in the Lehigh Valley and another in Princeton, NJ as well its headquarters in Chatham.
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