Americold Boosts Footprint With $480M Buy

Americold cold-storage warehouse. Image courtesy of Americold Realty Trust

Americold Realty Trust has acquired Hall’s Warehouse Corp., a third-party logistics company based in South Plainfield, N.J., for $480 million. Hall’s portfolio consists of eight facilities encompassing 1.6 million square feet of industrial space, which includes 545,000 square feet of cooler and freezer components.

The buildings have a total of 58 million cubic feet and 200,000 pallet positions. Hall’s owns five of the properties and leases the other three. Additionally, the company provides transportation services for its tenants. At the time of closing, the portfolio was 95 percent occupied by 220 customers.

The properties are located in Northern New Jersey, within 15 miles of each other and roughly 30 miles from the Port of Newark. The deal includes: 100 Saw Mill Pond Road in Edison; 200 Foothill Road in Bridgewater; 5 Access Road and 120 Circle Drive N. in Piscataway; 401, 501 and 701 Kentile Road and 330 Oak Tree Ave. in South Plainfield.

No freeze on construction

The company also plans to invest $84 million in the expansion of its facility in Russellville, Ark. The new construction would add 13 million cubic feet and 42,000 pallet positions to the property. The warehouse is built-to-suit for Conagra Brands. The developer expects to break ground on the project by the end of the year and finish construction by 2022.

Americold also plans a $11 million expansion of a property in Calgary, the largest cold storage warehouse in Western Canada. The company purchased the facility as part of its $254 million acquisition of Nova Cold. Construction work will begin in the following days and is expected to be finalized by the end of 2021.

In October, Americold announced it will acquire Agro Merchants Group for $1.74 billion from Oaktree Capital. The company expects to complete the transaction by the end of the year or in early 2021.