ASB Real Estate Buys Inland Empire Industrial Asset for $124M

Columbia Business Park, Riverside, Calif. Image courtesy of ASB Real Estate Investments

ASB Real Estate Investments continues to make strides in its strategy of bolstering its industrial holdings with the acquisition of the 1.4 million-square-foot Columbia Business Park project in Riverside, Calif., in the high-demand Inland Empire market. ASB purchased the asset from a client of Washington Capital Management Inc. for $123.8 million.

Washington Capital’s client, Operating Engineers Pension Trust, Local 12, is behind the creation of Columbia Business Park. In 2017, acting on behalf of Operating Engineers, Washington Capital tapped Trammell Crow Co. to serve as developer of the 72-acre industrial complex, which will ultimately comprise  three buildings. Completed in 2018, the 1 million-square-foot Building 1 is located at 490 Columbia Ave. and is fully leased to Nordstrom Inc. Building 2 will offer approximately 371,200 square feet at 300 Palmyrita Ave., and Building 3 will feature 86,800 square feet at the intersection of Palmyrita Avenue and Michigan Avenue.

The Inland Empire remains one of the top industrial markets in the U.S. According to a report by Transwestern, in the second quarter of 2019, the Inland Empire recorded the second-highest quarterly and year-over-year net absorption totals in the country. Additionally, the market ended the quarter with a vacancy rate of just 3.4 percent, the fourth lowest in the country.

BUYING FRENZY

Columbia Business Park, Riverside, Calif. Image courtesy of ASB Real Estate investments

While ASB is still active in the office, multifamily and retail sectors, the majority of the company’s acquisitions in 2019 have been in the industrial arena, with a focus on well-leased properties in growing industrial markets.

And like the Columbia Business Park deal, ASB made the purchases through its $7.6 billion Allegiance Real Estate Fund.  In the second quarter alone, the company acquired the approximately 368,700-square-foot warehouse at 8800 E. Adamo Drive in Tampa for $26.3 million and the 221,500-square-foot warehouse-distribution facility at 201 N.W. 22nd Ave. in Fort Lauderdale for $38.2 million.

ASB also bought the 79 North Industrial Portfolio, a 408,000-square-foot complex near Pittsburgh in Sewickley, Pa., in a $38 million joint-venture transaction. With the completion of the Columbia Business Park purchase, ASB has acquired more than 4.5 million square feet of industrial assets in transactions totaling in excess of $494 million since mid-2018.