Plymouth Industrial Expands Portfolio With $51M Buy

8451 Western Way, Jacksonville, Fla. Image courtesy of Plymouth Industrial

Plymouth Industrial REIT Inc., of Boston, has bolstered a couple of its current strongholds by acquiring two industrial properties in St. Louis and one industrial property in Jacksonville, Fla., for a total of $51.2 million. The sellers were not disclosed.

READ ALSO: Transactions: September 2020

The two properties in St. Louis total 566,408 square feet. Commerce Center I and II are two Class A in-fill buildings totaling 487,150 square feet that are fully leased to five tenants. The buildings (both completed in 2001) are at 909 N. 20th St. and 900 N. 23rd St. and were acquired for $27 million. Their previous owner was Real Capital Solutions, of Louisville, Colo., according to information provided to Commercial Property Executive by Yardi Matrix.

2326 Grissom Drive in St. Louis consists of two Class B industrial buildings totaling 79,258 square feet and fully occupied by a single tenant. The property is near St. Louis Lambert International Airport and was acquired for $3.7 million.

The industrial property in Jacksonville is 8451 Western Way, a 289,850-square-foot Class B building that’s fully leased to five tenants. It’s off I-95, close to two of Plymouth’s business parks, and was acquired for $20.5 million.

The acquisitions were funded with working capital and borrowings under Plymouth’s credit facilities.

Presence is stronger, market is not

In a prepared statement, Pendleton White Jr., Plymouth’s president & chief investment officer, described the acquisitions as classic Plymouth properties in markets with strong industrial demand fundamentals and access to large, highly skilled blue-collar labor pools, and in close proximity to the company’s existing portfolio assets. He added the properties were acquired well below replacement cost.

Plymouth’s existing industrial portfolio in Jacksonville consisted of three parks, all in the Southside submarket, and totaling 20 buildings and more than 1.1 million square feet. The whole portfolio was acquired at the end of 2018, in a transaction involving a $75 million purchase of Plymouth stock by Madison International Realty, as well as some other moving parts.

The St. Louis industrial real estate market lost a little ground in the second quarter, with overall vacancy increasing to 5.9 percent and average rents declining from $4.61 to $4.52 per square foot, according to a second-quarter report from Newmark Grubb Zimmer.

The culprit was negative net absorption, which totaled 553,000 square feet in the second quarter and 1 million square feet over the past four quarters. In addition, a little over 600,000 square feet of space was delivered in the second quarter, and nearly a further 1.4 million is currently under construction, again according to Newmark Grubb Zimmer.