AEW Capital, Meritex Take $107M Stake in Industrial Portfolio

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AEW Capital Management and The Meritex Co. have formed a new partnership to acquire an equity interest in a 14-property industrial portfolio for $106.7 million. Properties in the portfolio are located in the Phoenix, Ariz. and Charlotte, N.C. metro areas and together total 931,398 square feet.

JLL worked on behalf of The Meritex Co. to arrange the partnership with AEW Capital Management. In addition, a JLL Capital Markets team of Mark Gibson, Trey Morsbach, Adam Herrin, Stephen Bailey and Jeremy Womack represented Meritex in the portfolio deal.

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According to JLL, the properties within the portfolio all have access to primary transportation thoroughfares and are located in strategic submarkets within Phoenix and Charlotte.

Meritex Chief Investment Office Ray Kivett said in a statement that the partnership will aggressively look to acquire more properties in the Dallas, Miami, Phoenix and Charlotte markets and currently have several deals in the works. The joint venture is looking to acquire $125 million in additional assets over the next 18 months.

Industrial stays hot

The U.S. industrial market has remained steady in recent months, according to a recent JLL industrial outlook report. In the second quarter, the vacancy rate remained steady at 5 percent, despite new industrial completions hitting 65.2 million square feet.

Last month, logistics giant Prologis acquired Liberty Property Trust for $12.6 billion in a blockbuster deal. The all-stock deal was one of the largest-ever logistics deals and comprised 107 million square feet, along with 5.1 million square feet of projects under development.

During a recent Urban Land Institute economic outlook webinar, Cushman & Wakefield’s Global Head of Forecasting, Rebecca Rockey, said she expects industrial to remain the “darling” asset class among real estate’s sectors. “We are still expecting to see hot demand and investor interest in infill locations,” said Rockey.