Specht Wraps Industrial Record-Setter in Portland

By Gail Kalinoski

Vista Logistics Park in Gresham, Ore.

Specht Development Inc. has completed the largest speculative industrial development in the Portland region ever launched in a single phase. The 732,824-square-foot project comprising three buildings includes the metro’s largest single vacant industrial space under one roof.

Leasing at Vista Logistics Park, located on 37.42 acres at SE 223^rd and Stark streets in Gresham, Ore., has begun.

“Based on our research, Vista Logistics Park is the largest single-phase speculative development ever constructed in the Portland metropolitan area,” Don Ossey, principal of the leasing firm Capacity Commercial Group, said in a prepared statement. “The project also offers the largest single vacant industrial space under one roof, with one of the buildings consisting of 494,464 square feet. But for this project, buildings larger than 300,000 square feet do not exist in our area.”

Vista Logistics Park Building C

That building has a minimum clear height of 36 feet. The two smaller buildings—112,940 and 124,420 square feet respectively—both have clear heights of 30 feet. The site, purchased for $9.3 million from the Port of Portland, has easy access to Interstate 84. The Port of Portland worked closely with the city of Gresham to allow Specht to break ground in August 2016, less than two months after the purchase and sale agreement was signed.

“This project would not have moved forward when it did without the outstanding cooperation of the Port of Portland and the City of Gresham. We are grateful for their partnership in this project,” Todd Sheaffer, president of Portland-based Specht Development said in a prepared statement.

New York Life Real Estate Investors is the primary equity partner in the project.

Ossey and David Ellis are leading the Capacity Commercial Group brokerage team that is leasing the property.

Mackenzie was the project architect and engineer and Perlo Construction was the general contractor.

Specht’s Active Pipeline

Specht and its affiliate entities have developed or provided project and construction management on more than 9.5 million square feet of commercial and industrial real estate since it was formed in 1992. Since June 2014, Specht and its investment partners have begun construction on a total of nearly 1.6 million square feet of speculative industrial developments in metro Portland, including Vista Logistics Park.

In July, Specht Development and its institutional capital partner, Pacific Coast Capital Partners LLC, sold the Interstate Crossroads Distribution Center, a 492,554-square-foot warehouse and distribution center in the Airport Way submarket of Portland, for $56 million to WPT Industrial REIT. The property was fully leased to Staples and LKQ, a nationwide wholesaler of used and refurbished auto parts. One of the last developable sites in that corridor, the property has easy access to the Port of Portland, Portland International Airport and Interstates 84, 205 and 5.

Image courtesy of Specht Development