Thor Expands With 250 KSF Mexico-Border Facility

Thor Equities Group has purchased a 250,000-square-foot industrial facility in Laredo, Texas. A private individual sold the asset, while Shelter Growth Capital Partners issued a $24.3 million acquisition loan, public records show.

The facility is part of the master-planned, multi-phase, 1,600-acre North Laredo Industrial Park. White Ark Enterprises served as general contractor for the 2023-completed building.

The property features 30-foot clear heights, 48 docks, 233 trailer stalls, as well as 272 parking spaces and 3,000 square feet of office space. Moreover, EELCO—a U.S. Customs Broker—inked a five-year lease at the distribution center, now serving as the firm’s headquarters.

Located on 18 acres at 15241 Fatima Drive, the building is roughly 4 miles west of Interstate 35 and some 8 miles south of U.S. Route 83. The World Trade International Bridge is 10 miles southwest of the property. Nearly 18 miles north, the $7.4 billion, 13,000-acre master-planned development dubbed Talise broke ground last month.

Nearshoring boosts Laredo industrial activity

As nearshoring and reshoring grow, Laredo turned into a hotspot for industrial warehouse investment, with more than 200 logistics companies and north of 500 businesses entrenched in the area. Port Laredo facilitated more than 40 percent of cross-border commerce in 2023, with approximately 15,000 trucks flowing through it daily, according to the North Laredo Industrial Park website.

Another nearby deal closed in May, when Morgan Stanley Real Estate sold four fully-leased assets totaling 1.2 million square feet in El Paso, Texas and Laredo. Two different buyers paid $178 million for the buildings.

The McAllen industrial market boasted record demand in 2024’s first quarter, at 3.3 million square feet—nearly double the 38-quarter trailing average, according to a CBRE report. Moreover, the figure clocked in at 3 million square feet more than the total vacant space and 2.6 million square feet more than the total available space.

The industrial vacancy rate was 1.3 percent as of March 2024, marking a 50-basis-point decrease quarter-over-quarter, the same report shows. What’s more, the rate for Class A assets was just 0.8 percent.