Columbia Pacific JV Lands $132M Refi for IOS Portfolio

Criterion Group and Columbia Pacific Advisors have secured a $132.3 million refinancing for a 22-property industrial outdoor storage portfolio. Image courtesy of JLL Capital Markets

A joint venture between Criterion Group and Columbia Pacific Advisors has secured through Axos Bank a $132.3 million refinancing for a 22-property industrial outdoor storage portfolio. JLL Capital Markets arranged the five-year, floating-rate loan on behalf of the borrower.

The portfolio totals 230 acres, and the sites are located in distribution markets in Texas and across eight other states in the Northeast and Southeast.

JLL described the properties as “low coverage industrial sites that can be used for a range of industrial purposes, including fleet parking, heavy machinery/construction equipment storage, shipping container storage, and more.”

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The JLL Capital Markets Debt Advisory team was led by Senior Managing Director Christopher Peck, Managing Director Peter Rotchford and Vice President Christopher Pratt.

Driven by the rising demand for last-mile logistics as a result of continued growth of e-commerce, leasing for industrial outdoor storage assets has started to shift from typically non-credit, local tenants to national credit tenants, thus attracting a more institutional investor-set as well, Rotchford said in a prepared statement.

The portfolio’s broad geographic scope positions the assets to increase in value as last-mile logistics drive increased demand for parking and outdoor storage space, Shibber Khan, principal at the Criterion Group, explained in prepared remarks. He added that the portfolio offers the opportunity for powerful near- and long-term rent growth.

Surging sector

In May, Commercial Property Executive took a snapshot of the industrial outdoor storage sector, noting that it has surged to at least a $200 billion market over the past several years. Investors, increasingly institutional players, are being attracted by tight supply, modest capital expenditures and solid operating results.

In March, for example, H.I.G. Realty Partners formed an IOS platform and got it rolling with the acquisition of a 55-property, 2.3 million-square-foot portfolio.

The same month, GreenPoint made a strategic investment in Semi-Stow, of Austin, Texas, which manages 30 sites totaling more than 5,500 truck and trailer spaces across the U.S. The investment was part of GreenPoint’s launch of a dedicated $500 million IOS platform.