Sealy & Co. Buys 1 MSF Distribution Facility

3951 Lakeview Corporate Drive. Image courtesy of Sealy & Co.

Sealy & Co., of Dallas, has acquired a 1.1 million-square-foot, cross-docked distribution warehouse in the St. Louis market. Panattoni Development Co. sold the property for an undisclosed price. The purchase reportedly brings Sealy’s year-to-date acquisition volume to more than $400 million.

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The Class A facility is at 3951 Lakeview Corporate Drive, in Lakeview Commerce Center, near Granite City, Ill., in the Metro East submarket. The business park is adjacent to the I-255/I-270 interchange and close to Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.

The building features 32-foot clear height, 96 dock doors with knockouts for 40 future dock doors, 90 trailer stalls, ESFR sprinklers, 60- by 50-foot speed bays, and 50- by 50-foot column spacing. The current tenant has in recent years expanded its presence within Lakeview Commerce Center and occupies three additional properties, one of which Sealy acquired in January of this year.

The transaction was brokered by Michael Caprile and Zach Graham of CBRE and Sealy’s Investment Services team, led by Scott Sealy Jr., Jason Gandy and Davis Gibbs.

3951 Lakeview Corporate Drive. Image courtesy of Sealy & Co.

In a prepared statement, Scott Sealy Jr., the company’s chief investment officer, noted St. Louis’ strength as a logistics hub during the pandemic and added that the tenant “has demonstrated a long-term commitment to their significant presence in this submarket.”

A Sealy & Co. spokesperson did not reply to Commercial Property Executive’s request for additional information.

Acquisitions everywhere

Among the deals that helped propel Sealy above $400 million in acquisitions this year were the August purchase of a 197,800-square-foot distribution facility in Covington, La., near New Orleans, and its acquisition shortly after of an eight-building, 1.2-million-square-foot, fully leased industrial portfolio in Greenville, S.C., from Blackstone.

The Metro East St. Louis submarket has an 8.8 percent average vacancy (versus 6.1 percent for metro St. Louis as a whole) on an inventory of 46.4 million square feet, according to a third-quarter report from Newmark Grubb Zimmer. The average Metro East asking rent for warehouse/distribution space is $3.77 per square foot.

The industrial project to watch in Metro East is NorthPoint Development’s 600-plus-acre Gateway TradePort, in Pontoon Beach, Ill., which at full buildout is planned to total 11 buildings and 7.5 million square feet. The first building was delivered in January and has since been fully leased; a second building got underway in August.