CHARLESTON-US Industrial REIT III, an affiliate of USAA Real Estate Co., acquired a 1.1 million-square-foot class A bulk distribution facility from joint venture partners The Rockefeller Group and MeadWestvaco Corporation.
Andrew Merin and Stewart Calhoun of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller, with local assistance from Colliers Keenan. Merin did not return calls seeking comment on the deal. Calhoun declined to comment. The purchase price was not disclosed.
“Proximity to a growing major U.S port will continue to attract cargo traffic and the need for quality distribution space,” says USAA Real Estate Company Chairman and CEO Pat Duncan. The LEED Gold-certified cross-dock distribution facility occupies 124 acres in the Rockefeller Group-MeadWestvaco Foreign Trade Zone.
The distribution facility is one of four proposed buildings that make up approximately 2.7 square feet of master planned distribution space off I-26 along the Charleston Distribution Corridor in Berkeley County. The site is located 25 miles north of the Port of Charleston, one of the deepest ports in the Southeast. The Port of Charleston is currently undergoing a 10-year expansion to include a sixth terminal and an additional 1.4 million TEU capacity.
“The Charleston industrial market really got turned upside down about a year ago when Boeing announced it was going to build a 787 program here,” Mike White, a vice president at CB Richard Ellis-Carmody, tells GlobeSt.com. “As Boeing approaches accepting that building in July, we are starting to see a lot of new activity in the marketplace from both suppliers and investors who want to be in this market to supply Boeing. We’ve reached a tipping point and I am calling for developers to build on spec.”
Eighteen months after the US economic recovery began and three years after the peak of the market, the Charleston industrial market marked its first significant signs of recovery, according to Grubb & Ellis. After peaking at 8.4 percent in late 2007, the Great Recession sent vacancy soaring to 14.6 percent. Local and incoming businesses have added workers and additional space resulting in the drop to 12.9 percent vacancy. Grubb predicts spec development will resume in 2012.
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