Equus Grows North Carolina Footprint With $124M Buy

Equus Capital Partners has added more than 1.4 million square feet to its North Carolina industrial footprint. The firm acquired a nine-building portfolio near Charlotte and Greensboro for $124 million through a sponsored value-add fund called Equus Investment Partnership XII LP.

The seller was Investcorp, public records show. According to the same source, Equus financed the purchase with a three-year, $75 million loan from Franklin BSP Realty Trust.

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The Charlotte properties total more than 1.2 million square feet across the Lincoln, Cleveland and Iredell County submarkets, while the Greensboro asset has 241,050 square feet and is centrally located in the Piedmont Triad market.

The portfolio is made up of mostly single-tenant bulk distribution assets ranging from 38,480 to 382,668 square feet. At the time of sale, the facilities were fully leased to nine tenants, including FedEx, Lenovo and American Woodmark.

Tim Feron, vice president of acquisitions at Equus, said in prepared remarks that the portfolio has an opportunity to increase net operating income and expand lease duration in the future. Feron also mentioned the properties also have more than 400,000 square feet of development and expansion potential.

Further expanding into North Carolina

In recent years, Equus has been steadily building up its portfolio of industrial properties in North Carolina. The firm’s footprint already includes the Raleigh Light Industrial Portfolio, which totals more than 2.6 million square feet.

In February 2022, the firm acquired eight industrial properties in Greensboro, N.C., through the same value-add fund. More recently, last June, Equus sold Carolina 85 Logistics Center, a speculatively built 300,468-square-foot warehouse/distribution facility in Kings Mountain, N.C., for $32.9 million.

Overall, the firm’s U.S. portfolio totals more than 30 million square feet of owned and managed industrial assets. Equus also owns land for another 5 million square feet of industrial developments.