Finmarc Buys Big Industrial Portfolio in NoVa

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

Woodbridge, Va.—In a $58 million deal, Finmarc Management Inc., of Bethesda, Md., has purchased a 15-building portfolio comprising more than 750,000 square feet of industrial and warehouse space in Northern Virginia’s I-95 corridor, Finmarc announced last Friday.

Finmarc’s Industrial Portfolio in Northern Virginia

Thirteen of the buildings are in Featherstone Industrial Park in Woodbridge, and two are in Fredericksburg, Va., roughly 30 miles south. Overall, the portfolio has more than 25 tenants and is 91 percent leased.

The seller was Steuart Investment Co., of Chevy Chase, Md. Marc Rampulla, Mark Levy and Jay Wellschlanger of JLL were the brokers of record.

The Featherstone portion of the portfolio encompasses 58 acres. At a total of 160 acres, Featherstone Industrial Park is one of the largest such parks in Northern Virginia and accounts for about 40 percent of all warehouse and distribution space in the Prince William East submarket.

Featherstone is bordered to the east by a CSX rail line whose tracks also serve the Virginia Rail Express, and I-95 is only about 2 miles west. The park is about 25 miles from downtown Washington, D.C., and about 30 miles from Dulles Washington International Airport.

Representative tenants including Coleman American Moving Services, Joe Moholland Moving Inc., the General Services Administration, Arven Moving & Storage and Atlantic Transfer Inc.

“We were attracted to the critical mass of this portfolio, coupled with our long-term optimism of the industrial and warehouse sector, given the recent explosion of the e-commerce industry and accompanying expansion of same-day or next-day delivery models,” Finmarc Principal Marc Solomon said in a prepared statement.

“There continues to be an enormous appetite among companies to maintain large distribution centers near major population centers to achieve their logistics objectives,” he added, noting that this acquisition was completed for less than replacement cost.

“Land suitable for large-scale warehouse and distribution buildings are difficult to come by, and new construction starts in this category have slowed, causing constrained supply,” Solomon added. “We believe every fundamental points to the continued acceleration of the e-commerce and logistics industries. This portfolio is perfectly positioned to take advantage of these market conditions.”

“Our team is already engaged in discussions with several existing tenants … about possible expansions to boost occupancy,” Sean Sullivan, vice president of Finmarc Management, told Commercial Property Executive. “Additionally, the high demand and limited supply of this product, combined with the traditional marketing efforts we deploy with our leasing team, should elevate the occupancy over the next 12 months.”

“Featherstone Industrial Park has enjoyed historically high occupancy due to its ceiling heights, truck radius and heavy industrial zoning,” John Detleff, senior vice president at JLL Mid Atlantic, said in the prepared statement. “As the I-95 Corridor tightens and residential and retail space grows in the immediate vicinity, Woodbridge … is becoming a more pivotal link in Metro Washington D.C.’s last mile distribution supply chain.”

JLL Mid Atlantic will be handling leasing for Finmarc at Featherstone.

Image courtesy of New Media Systems