Blackstone, Sabert Put Warehouse Portfolios on the Block

We’ve had a couple of signs this week that the industrial market, which boomed like there was no tomorrow during the pandemic, finally has lost a bit of its steam.

Inland Empire, the mega-warehouse capital of the known universe, reported its first quarterly negative net absorption for the first time in more than ten years in the second quarter, GlobeSt. reported.

This news was followed by the listing for sale of two industrial portfolios encompassing 16 buildings.

Then again, maybe the sellers are just looking for a quick way to raise a pile of cash while lending and liquidity are scarce. What was it Harry Truman said about looking for a one-armed economist? Anyway, here are the latest goods that have gone shopping:

Blackstone’s Link Logistics subsidiary has listed six industrial properties in NYC and Long Island encompassing a total of 929K SF, including five buildings and an infill parking, TheRealDeal reported.

Each of the properties is fully leased to single tenants, including FedEx and Harris/Edo Corp., with the weighted average remaining lease term of about six years. No asking price was specified, but JLL is offering the portfolio as a sale of REIT shares, TRD said.

Three of the warehouses are in proximity to NYC airports—two near La Guardia and one next to JFK—while two of the properties are on Long Island and the other is in Inwood.

Across the Hudson River, food-packaging manufacturer Sabert Corp. has tapped Cushman & Wakefield to market eight warehouses, including Sabert’s Sayreville, NJ headquarters, in a sale-leaseback the company hopes will raise $350M.

The eight industrial properties, which are spread around the US and encompass a total of 2.7M SF, are being shopped as a package but Sabert is willing to consider bids on individual buildings, Green Street reported.

Sabert plans to lease back the buildings under 10-year agreements that it projects will generate $19M of net operating income in the first year. At the estimated $130/SF valuation, the portfolio would generate an initial annual yield of 5.4%, the report said.

Sabert’s 195K SF headquarters is located at 2288 Main Street Extension in Sayreville. Other New Jersey warehouses in the portfolio include a 254K SF building at 879 Main Street in Sayreville, and a 141K SF warehouse at 925 Georges Road in the Monmouth Junction section of South Brunswick.

The portfolio also includes two buildings in Fort Wayne, IN, at 3511 Engle Road (702K SF) and 8510 Ardmore Avenue (179K SF). The other warehouses for sale are at 890 East Blue Lick Road in Shepherdsville, KY (507K SF), 860 Palmyrita Avenue in Riverside, CA (368K SF) and 6601 FM 1570 in Greenville, TX (358K SF).

Earlier this month, Blackstone sold an industrial portfolio encompassing 14M SF to Prologis for $3.1B.