Sealy & Co. Acquires Houston Distribution Center

8800 CityPark Loop. Image courtesy of Sealy & Co.

Chicago-based First Industrial Realty Trust Inc. sold 8800 CityPark Loop, a 663,821-square-foot Houston distribution warehouse built in 1994, to Sealy & Co., a commercial real estate investment and operating firm with a focus on industrial properties.

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Sealy & Co. did not disclose the price but First Industrial in its fourth-quarter and year-end 2020 earnings report released last week stated it expected “to sell one building in Houston totaling 664,000 square feet for an estimated sales price of $42 million.” The REIT noted in the earnings report it had sold 15 buildings totaling 1.3 million square feet for $97.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2020. In 2020, First Industrial sold 28 buildings totaling 1.9 million square feet for $153.4 million. The REIT acquired the nearly 41-acre site in February 2006 for $35 million, according to CommercialEdge data.

The building is located in the Northeast industrial submarket of the Houston MSA, about 5 miles north of the Port of Houston and downtown Houston. Sealy & Co. said the property also has good access to the Houston freeway system and two Union Pacific rail intermodal yards. Situated at the NE Loop 610 at McCarty Drive, it is also near the growing population of the “Texas Triangle” of Houston, Dallas and San Antonio, Texas. Noting that finding an industrial operation with more than 40 acres close to Loop 610 is difficult and expensive, Sealy & Co. said the property is “a highly desired asset.” The property has more than 200 trailer parking spaces with additional expansion capacity.

Scott Sealy Jr., Sealy & Co.’s chief investment officer, said in a prepared statement Houston is a top performing industrial market and one that the company has had success and confidence in for many years. Sealy said the distribution center benefits from its location and long-term credit tenancy.

Sealy & Co. did not disclose the tenant, which has occupied the property since 1994, saying only that the company has “made the property an integral part of its south-central U.S. operations.” Michelin Americas Small Tires Distribution Center is listed as operating at the 8800 CityPark Loop address.

The company’s Investment Services team, led by Scott Sealy Jr. and Jason Gandy, worked closely with Tom Lynch and Faron Wiley of CBRE to acquire the property and close the transaction.

Earlier deals

Sealy & Co., which has corporate offices in Dallas and Shreveport, La., and regional offices in Houston and Atlanta, has been active with acquisitions in recent months. In December, the company acquired a Class A, 1.1 million-square-foot, cross-docked distribution warehouse in the St. Louis market from Panattoni Development Co. for an undisclosed price. That purchase reportedly brought Sealy’s 2020 acquisition volume to more than $400 million.

In August, Sealy & Co. acquired a 197,800-square-foot distribution facility in Covington, La., near New Orleans from the tenant, Medline Industries. Also in August, the company purchased an eight-building, 1.2 million-square-foot industrial portfolio in Greenville, S.C., from Blackstone. Prices on both acquisitions were not released but Sealy & Co. did state that the Blackstone deal was the largest to date in 2020 and the second largest in company history. It also marked the entrance into South Carolina. The company now has properties in 12 major target markets: Dallas; Houston; Atlanta; St. Louis; Greenville, S.C.; Oklahoma City; Memphis, Tenn.; Shreveport; Kansas City, Mo.; Columbus, Ohio; Baton Rouge, La.; and Lexington, Ky.