LaSalle Investment Management Buys $97M Logistics Asset

Bellingham Distribution Center. Image courtesy of LaSalle Investment Management

LaSalle Investment Management has expanded its logistics footprint in the U.S. with the acquisition of Bellingham Distribution Center, a 345,000-square-foot Boston-area property. The global real estate investment manager’s flagship core institutional real estate vehicle, LaSalle Property Fund, acquired the fully leased property in Bellingham, Mass., from developer Barings for $96.7 million, according to the Norfolk County Registry of Deeds.

LaSalle picked a premier market for its latest addition to its industrial portfolio. “Attracted by the ‘record-setting everything’ market fundamentals, the Greater Boston industrial market continues to be prioritized by the largest capital sources in the world, including industrial REITs, institutional pension fund advisors, private equity capital, life insurance companies, foreign capital allocators, and ultra-high net worth investors,” according to a first quarter 2022 report by CBRE.

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Sited on 60 acres at 160 Mechanic St. off Interstate 495, Bellingham Distribution Center is located in the 495 South submarket, the largest industrial submarket in metropolitan Boston. General contractor Arco Construction completed the development of the facility, known in its early stage as Lincoln Logistics 36, on Barings’ behalf in 2021.

The state-of-the-art property offers 70 fully equipped docks and 50 trailer storage spaces and provides such coveted features as 36-foot clear heights, ESFR sprinklers, LED sensor lighting and clearstory windows. Donnelly Construction spearheaded the tenant fit-out, which includes 10,000 square feet of office space to accommodate break rooms and training facilities.

In August 2021, Barings and project co-developer Lincoln Property Co. signed leading restaurant supply company TriMark to a full-building lease of Bellingham Distribution Center. TriMark relocated from its site in South Attleboro, availing itself of a modern option amid Boston’s aging pool of industrial properties.

The company was fortunate to snap up the property when it did, as the metropolitan Boston industrial market is just getting tighter and tighter. As noted in a first quarter 2022 report by CBRE, “Absorption and vacancy are positioned to increase and decrease, respectively, as new blocks of space are delivered with strong preleasing in place.”

The feeling is global

LaSalle’s purchase of Bellingham Distribution Center follows a series of international additions to its portfolio. In the first quarter of 2022, La Salle acquired The Plus, a fully leased, 335,800-square-foot facility in Bielefeld, Germany, as well as the 1.4 million-square-foot Verona DC1 fulfillment center in Verona, Italy. The investment management firm also purchased a logistics campus in Venlo, the Netherlands, featuring eight warehouses and a 796,500-square-foot logistics project.

“[Logistics] remains a pandemic winner in all geographies, with very robust occupier demand and build-cost inflation set to boost rental growth,” according to a February 2022 report by Cushman & Wakefield.