ASB, Endurance Team Up for 5th Industrial Acquisition

Lehigh Valley West Industrial Portfolio in Pennsylvania. Image courtesy of ASB Real Estate Investments and Endurance Real Estate Group

ASB Real Estate Investments continues growing its Pennsylvania logistics holdings with the acquisition of a 12-building, 929,250-square-foot industrial portfolio in Berks County, Pa., for $77.6 million in a joint venture with an affiliate of Endurance Real Estate Group.

The National Partners Team of CBRE arranged the transaction on behalf of the seller, Continental Capital Partners, a private investment firm based in Virginia Beach, Va.

ASB made the investment on behalf of its Allegiance Real Estate Fund, an $8.3 billion core vehicle. It is ASB’s fifth investment with Endurance. ASB and Endurance also teamed up in October to purchase York Business Center, a 1.5 million-square-foot, 119-acre industrial center in York, Pa., from Equity Industrial Partners for $91 million.

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Lehigh Valley West Industrial Portfolio in Pennsylvania. Image courtesy of ASB Real Estate Investments and Endurance Real Estate Group

The Lehigh Valley West Industrial Portfolio is well leased to a variety of tenants ranging from large multinational corporations to regional service-oriented companies. The portfolio includes nine buildings totaling 466,420 square feet in the Berks Corporate Center, located at the interchange of PA Route 61 and U.S. Route 222 in Reading, Pa.

184 Tuckerton Road, located across from the Berks Corporate Center in the Route 61 Distribution Center, is the largest property in the portfolio with 392,030 square feet. The portfolio also includes 10 Vanguard Drive, a multi-tenant, 57,600-square-foot shallow bay facility, and 650 Lincoln Road, a single-tenant, 13,200-square-foot light industrial building, both within the Lincoln Corporate Center about 12 miles southeast of the Reading buildings.

Strong industrial location

Brodie Ruland, ASB managing director & co-head of acquisitions, said in a prepared statement the investment provides the opportunity to own a well-located, infill industrial portfolio with access to a strong labor base and proximity to one of the premier industrial markets in the country.

The portfolio’s assets are located just west of the Lehigh Valley, in an area that has easy access to highways that put six of the top 10 MSAs in the U.S. and 60 percent of the Canadian population within a one-day truck drive. Berks County is one of the top markets along the I-78/I-81 PA Corridor because of its ample labor pool, ratio of residents to warehouse square footage and proximity to Philadelphia, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore.

Jared Newman, senior vice president of acquisitions for Endurance, said in prepared remarks the acquisition continues the Radnor, Pa.,-based firm’s long-term strategy of buying well-located but difficult to replace light industrial assets.

Newman stated the company, a real estate owner and developer focused on value-add industrial opportunities in the Mid-Atlantic region, remains bullish on Berks County and the Reading submarket, where it has been active for more than a decade. Endurance recently completed development of three Class A warehouses in the Reading area: Berks 61 with 270,000 square feet; and two buildings at Berks 222 with 160,212 square feet and 167,492 square feet.

 Earlier deals

ASB, a division of ASB Capital Management LLC, is a leading real estate investment management firm with more than $8.9 billion in gross assets under management for more than 320 institutional clients. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the firm also invests in office, multifamily, retail and self storage assets.

ASB started off this year with a disposition. A joint venture of ASB and 60 Guilders sold a two-building, 209,000-square-foot warehouse complex in Brooklyn, N.Y.  that is fully leased to the New York City Board of Elections. The price was not disclosed but public records indicate CBRE Investment Management bought the asset for $85 million.

In December, ASB acquired Savannah Logistics Center, a 1.4 million-square-foot industrial portfolio in the Savannah, Ga., market from Ares Management for a reported $161 million.