Cohen Completes $208M Phoenix Industrial Buy

Landing 3. Image courtesy of Cushman & Wakefield

Cohen Asset Management has completed the $208 million acquisition of The Landing 3, 4 and 5, a nine-building industrial campus totaling 858,900 square feet in Mesa, Ariz. The property sold in three separate transactions. Cushman & Wakefield advised the sellers, a joint venture of Martens Development and Dune Real Estate Partners.

CommercialEdge data shows nearly 13.3 million square feet of industrial space traded across Greater Phoenix in the first half of the year. Of the total, more than 2.1 million square feet changed hands in the Mesa submarket.

Near Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport

Martens broke ground on The Landing in 2020, financing part of the construction with $36.4 million from Texas Capital Bank, according to CommercialEdge data. The firm’s third development to carry the Landing brand name, after The Landing at PMG and Landing 202, the latest project was refinanced in 2021 with a $77.8 million loan from KKR.

Situated on more than 64 acres along East Ray Road in an Opportunity Zone, The Landing features 36-foot clear heights and ESFR sprinklers. The location fronts Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport and provides ready access to Loop 202, Interstate 10, Loop 101 and the U.S. 60 interchange.

The Landing 3, at 7827 to 8009 E. Ray Road, was built in 2021 and comprises six light industrial buildings and a cross-dock facility, which are all fully leased. Completed earlier this year, The Landing 4 consists of a single, fully leased 235,094 square-foot light industrial building at 8127 E. Ray Road. The Landing 5, a 98,465-square-foot, speculative light industrial building also delivered in 2022, is currently vacant.

Broker representation

Cushman & Wakefield Vice Chairman Will Strong, Senior Associate Greer Oliver and Senior Financial Analyst Connor Nebeker-Hay, together with Chairman Adam Spies and Vice Chair Marcella Fasulo, represented the seller. In a prepared statement, Strong noted that The Landing was 89 percent leased at the time of sale.

In addition, Vice Chairman Rob Rubano and Executive Managing Director Brian Share, along with Cushman & Wakefield’s Equity, Debt & Structured Finance Team arranged financing for the buyer. CBRE Senior Vice President Kevin Cosca provided leasing advisory.

Desert heat

As of September, Mesa had at least two sizable new industrial projects in the pipeline.

A joint venture of LaPour Partners and Scottsdale Investment Management received the local authorities’ approval for the construction of a 1.5-million-square-foot, $150 million industrial park on a 101-acre parcel close to the 202 Freeway. Dubbed AirPark 202, the campus will consist of six buildings that will take shape near Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport.

Just 10 minutes from the same airport, Trammell Crow bought a 40-acre site to develop Elliot Gateway, a four-building, 516,600-square-foot logistics park. Completion is expected by the end of this year.

As of mid-year, the metro Phoenix industrial space market was on pace to beat a record year in 2021, according to a second-quarter report from CBRE. Vacancy was at a record-low 2.8 percent, so “new product is key to continued future success,” the report states, with 31.2 million square feet underway.

The Southeast Valley submarket shared the same 2.8 percent overall vacancy, partly because some large spec buildings were leased within months of being delivered earlier this year. About 10 million square feet were under construction, much of it around Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, also per CBRE.