DRA Advisors, Venture One Team Up on $369M Portfolio Buy

10550 Eighth Ave. Image courtesy of CommercialEdge

DRA Advisors has completed a $369 million purchase of a 54-building, 2.8 million-square-foot portfolio of last-mile and logistics infill industrial assets and 84.5 acres of outdoor storage space located around metro Chicago, New Jersey, N.J., Long Island, N.Y., and Philadelphia.

The firm acquired the properties through an investment partnership with the portfolio’s previous owner, Venture One. Following the purchase, the buyers plan to conduct a number of value-add and leasing improvements to the portfolio.

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DRA obtained financing for the acquisition through Webster Bank, CIT, Wintrust and Byline Bank. A Chicago-based CBRE National Partners team represented Venture One in the transaction.

Assets, at a glance

601 Kingsland Drive. Image courtesy of CommercialEdge

The sale of the collection of properties marks the final transaction in the seller’s VK Industrial V Fund, which had acquired the assets from 2019 through 2022, and is managed alongside Kovitz Investment Group, according to reporting from Crain’s Chicago Business.

The assets range from single-tenant logistics and warehousing facilities to interstate trucking and docking hubs. More than two-thirds of the facilities are located around metro Chicago, a majority portion of which are situated in suburban areas.

Three Chicago-area properties that were sold as part of the venture include:

• A 37,000-square-foot warehousing and distribution facility located at 1429 Shields Drive in Waukegan, Ill. The property was constructed in 2004 and was acquired by Venture One in 2022 for $3.2 million, according to CommercialEdge information.
• 10550 Eighth Ave., a 196,300-square-foot distribution center located in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., that is a portion of the 2,400-acre LakeView Corporate Park. The property was built in 2019 on 11.63 acres, and includes mechanical loading doors, 113- to 137-foot truck courts, 50- by 54-foot column spacing and 32-foot clear heights, CommercialEdge data shows. The asset’s individual purchase price as part of the portfolio was $16.5 million.
• A 489,000-square-foot building located at 601 Kingsland Drive in Batavia, Ill., that is home to warehousing space. The property was built in 1995, and underwent a gut renovation and expansion in 2016, according to CommercialEdge information. Venture One acquired the asset in 2020 for $21.2 million, as part of the same portfolio acquisition that included 1429 Shields Drive, subject to a $76.3 million loan from Webster Bank. Following the improvements, the facility features 135-foot truck courts as well as rail-capable mechanical loading doors with dock levelers and bumpers.

116 Lehigh Drive. Image courtesy of CommercialEdge

An additional property that was part of the sale is a 106,850-square-foot warehouse located at 116 Lehigh Drive in Fairfield, N.J. The complex was built in 1986, and was purchased by the seller in 2020 for $13.5 million. The facility includes 110-foot truck courts with 24-foot clear heights, 40- by 40-foot column spacing and loading doors with dock levelers and bumpers. Situated within 4 miles of on-ramps to the Interstates 80 and 280, the facility offers highway access to much of metro New York; Midtown Manhattan is 20 miles away.

The CBRE team that represented the Venture One was led by Vice Chairmen Michael Caprile, Zach Graham, Ryan Bain, Brad Ruppel and Brian Fiumara.

Active Midwestern industrial players

Both the buyer and seller have been actively involved in numerous high-profile industrial projects throughout the Midwest. Earlier in March, DRA Advisors, in a joint venture with Burton Katzman, recapitalized a 2.2 million-square-foot portfolio of infill-located industrial properties that includes locations around Detroit.

Venture One has been involved in numerous development and investment endeavors in the region. In June of 2022, the firm broke ground on Venture Park 47, a 729,800-square-foot speculative development in the Chicago suburb of Huntley, Ill. In January of that year, the firm began its co-development of an 897,000-square-foot facility at the Gateway 57 Business Park in University Park, Ill.