The Silverman Group Purchases 560 KSF of Industrial Space in North Carolina from W.P. Carey

By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

The Silverman Group has added 560,000 square feet of space to its industrial portfolio with the acquisition of 10000 Twin Lakes Parkway, a Class A distribution center in Charlotte, N.C. The private equity and real estate development organization acquired the vacant property from W.P. Carey for nearly $9.7 million and will renovate the building before reintroducing it to Charlotte’s tightening industrial market.

As the industrial market improved in the Charlotte area, so did investor interest in 10000 Twin Lakes. The attraction, however, was not immediate. “Lucent [Technologies] had been in the building and upon their exit in 2009, it wasn’t the greatest time to have a vacant building, but we had a lot of interest from 2011 to 2012” Christopher J. Skibinski, managing director with commercial real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle, told Commercial Property Executive. JLL had been tapped by W. P. Carey, which specializes in providing long-term sale leaseback and build-to-suit financing for corporate real estate owners and users, to market the asset for sale or lease in August 2009, a few months before Lucent left.

Occupying 24 acres near I-77 and I-485 and 11 miles from Charlotte Douglas International Airport, 10000 Twin Lakes first opened its 30-foot dock-high doors in 1992. At the point when Lucent announced its imminent departure, however, the facility was no longer the best fit for industrial users seeking large accommodations. For the most part, they were deterred by the 120,000-square-foot mezzanine. “A lot of folks want to be able to move into a space fairly quickly and they weren’t open to waiting for us to remove the mezzanine that was really prohibiting their use of the space,” Skibinski noted. “The building required renovation and at the time, W. P. Carey wasn’t entirely comfortable investing dollars into a vacant asset to get it ready for the market.”

However, Silverman is comfortable with transforming the structure to appeal to users’ current preferences. “Taking dollars and renovating space is really more in their DNA so to speak,” said Skibinski. And there’s certainly demand for such a property. According to a first quarter report by real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, the real estate services firm that represented Silverman in the transaction, rising energy costs are expected to increase demand for high-quality distribution and manufacturing space as tenants attempt to shorten supply chains and position themselves within closer proximity of end users. “So having that space readily available for lease is going to be very attractive,” he added. “There’s a shortage of buildings that are 30-foot clear in our market with, say, 150,000 square feet of vacancy so there’s an opportunity there.”