Panattoni to Develop Seattle-Area Warehouse

Seattle. Image by ID 12019 via pixabay.com

Panattoni Development Co. plans to break ground on a 243,000-square-foot warehouse in Covington, Wash., this April. The company purchased the 20.47-acre site on Dec. 30, for $12.2 million, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal.

The speculative project, Covington 18, is situated at 28009 Covington Way SE. Tenants will be in proximity to Route 18, with access to Interstate 90 and the East Side.

The site has a traffic count of some 52,090 cars per day, according to CommercialEdge data. The speculative building is in the Seattle market and Kent SeaTac submarket.

In prepared remarks Travis Hale, partner at Panattoni, said that the Covington asset is one of the limited parcels of land available for industrial development in the area. It will compete for Sumner tenants due to its location near Kent Valley.

An office, 36-foot clear heights, 40 dock-high doors, 255 car parking spaces and 200 trailer parking spots are to be included in the Covington 18 project.

Construction is anticipated to complete in late 2023.

KBC Advisors’ Matt Wood and Kidder Matthews’ Todd Clarke and Ty Clarke are Covington 18’s brokers. The project is for lease and for sale, with a build-to-suit possibility.

Seattle’s strong industrial market

Despite economic uncertainties and slowing capital investment, the Seattle-area industrial market fared well throughout last year. Quarter three of 2022 saw the 12th consecutive quarter of positive absorption, with 1.6 million square feet, according to a recent Newmark report. The vacancy rate was 3.5 percent as of the same quarter, making the area attractive to developers and investors.

Due to its positive fundamentals, the Seattle industrial market saw high levels of investment activity through the end of 2022. Recently, LaSalle Investment Management purchased a 473,000-square-foot distribution center in the area for $120 million. The asset almost doubled in sales price since it last traded in 2017.