Lexington Realty Takes 3 in Indianapolis

Whiteland Exchange Business Park. Image courtesy of Avison Young

Lexington Realty Trust, a New York-based REIT focused on single-tenant industrial real estate investments, acquired three buildings totaling 878,410 square feet located within the Whiteland Exchange Business Park in the Indianapolis market from Jones Development.

The price was not disclosed. Avison Young negotiated the sale of the properties in the 168-acre, 2.4 million-square-foot master-planned business park located at Interstate 65 and Whiteland Road in Whiteland, Ind.

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Jones Development was represented by Avison Young’s Erik Foster and Mike Wilson, principals and members of the U.S. industrial capital markets team in the firm’s Chicago office. The team worked in conjunction with Sean McHale, principal, and Senior Associate Peter Seoane, both located in the firm’s Indianapolis office. The Indianapolis team was the exclusive leasing agent for Whiteland Exchange.

The largest building is 530,400 square feet and has been fully leased to Amazon since June 2020. The other assets—a 168,480-square-foot building and a 179,530-square-foot building—are fully leased to a global packing company.

Foster said in a prepared statement the historic expansion in e-commerce continues to draw investors to the industrial sector. He said he expects the strong momentum in the Indianapolis market and other growing logistics markets across the country to continue as investors seek newly constructed properties and long-term rental rate growth.

Brendan Mullinix, Lexington executive vice president & chief investment officer, said during the REIT’s third-quarter earnings call last week that Indianapolis is a market the company is committed to. He cited the central location and population reach of Whiteland Exchange, as well as the extensive highway air and rail systems, deep labor pool, business-friendly government and its access to the second-largest FedEx hub in the world. He noted the properties are all recently constructed and sit along I-65 in the business park.

Growing market

Jones Development, based in Kansas City, Mo., broke ground on Whiteland Exchange in July 2019. The speculative development was aimed at supporting the region’s growing industrial space occupiers, which range from e-commerce businesses to manufacturers, according to the Jones Development website. Plans called for the buildings at the business park to range in size from 168,000 square feet to 1.2 million square feet.

In June, Hines, in partnership with Cresset Real Estate Partners, broke ground on Whiteland 65 Logistics Center, a 1.1 million-square-foot building located on 81 acres along I-65. It is Hines’ first logistics project in the Indianapolis metro area and can be leased to one or two tenants. The property is near Indianapolis International Airport, the Indianapolis International FedEx Hub, the Louisville UPS Hub and other major thoroughfares, including I-70.

Several months earlier in April, Mohr Capital began construction of an 827,000-square-foot speculative industrial building within its Mohr Logistics Park, a master-planned business park also located off I-65 in Whiteland. Mohr also planned to add a 1 million-square-foot asset at the site within 60 days. The start of construction came soon after Mohr completed a 1 million-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility leased to Cooper Tires within the same park.

Lexington’s industrial growth

Lexington has been transitioning from an office REIT to a REIT focused on industrial real estate since December 2015. In an Oct. 6 letter to shareholders, Lexington said its portfolio was 94 percent industrial, with assets in markets predominantly located across the Sun Belt and Midwest. The company expects to complete the portfolio transition to 100 percent industrial by year-end 2022. The note stated that since Dec. 31, 2015, Lexington had acquired $2.7 billion of industrial assets and sold $3.2 billion of assets, including $1.6 billion of non-industrial assets.

In its third-quarter earnings report, Lexington stated it had acquired five warehouse/distribution properties during the quarter for a total cost of $134.8 million. The REIT said it had also begun development of five warehouse/distribution properties comprising 2.8 million square feet in the Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C., and Phoenix markets. Lexington also noted it invested $57.3 million in eight ongoing development projects.