Great Point Investors Makes Big St. Louis Buy

ST. LOUIS—The St. Louis metropolitan area may have been hard hit by the recession, but unemployment has fallen below the national average, and the industrial market in particular has started to come back to life. And Boston-based Great Point Investors has picked this moment to make a big investment in the Metro East submarket by purchasing the Gateway Industrial Portfolio. The two buildings, 7 and 29 Gateway Commerce Center Drive in Edwardsville, IL, total 780,000-square-feet.

“Following a strong first quarter, the industrial market realized additional occupancy growth in the second quarter of 2013,” according to a recent study published by the commercial real estate firm Cassidy Turley. “A total of 639,000-square-feet of positive absorption was realized in the quarter as the vacancy rate held at 8.2%. The growth for the industrial sector marks the fourth consecutive quarter of positive absorption with over 2,100,000-square-feet absorbed over that time.”