From industrial markets to the Navy Yard, EQT Exeter’s Ward Fitzgerald tells it like he sees it

Since 2006, Ward Fitzgerald has overseen the growth of Conshohocken-based Exeter Property Group into EQT Exeter, a global real estate company focused on industrial real estate though it also dabbles in residential, office and life sciences space. The company was formed last year after Exeter Property Group sold to Stockholm private equity firm EQT AB in a $1.9 billion deal.

Fitzgerald, who was with Liberty Property Trust prior to forming Exeter, has had a front-row seat to Philadelphia’s real estate scene and, as CEO of EQT Exeter, a first-hand view from a national and international perspective. 

*Article courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journal

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

Bucks, South Jersey buildings part of $423.5M recapitalization of industrial portfolio

A South Jersey building used as a distribution center for Rite Aid Corp. and a Bucks County building leased by AstraZeneca is among six Philadelphia-area properties that are part of a 58-building industrial portfolio recapitalized for $423.5 million. 

Taurus Investment Holdings, a Boston real estate investment firm, owns a portfolio that totals 3.96 million square feet and, in addition to Philadelphia region, the buildings are located in Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, and Houston. MetLife refinanced the portfolio. 

Taurus bought the properties in 2020 and they are 95% occupied with 109 tenants. The six Philadelphia properties total 431,469 square feet and are 100% occupied. They are located in two of the region’s highly sought-after industrial markets of Bucks County and South Jersey. 

*Article courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journal

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

Spate of sales closes out another record year for Philadelphia industrial market

Wharton Industrial Expands Philly Area

Two year-end acquisitions of several Northeast Philadelphia properties that totaled $45 million contributed to the region having another record year in industrial sales with $3.24 billion warehouse-distribution properties trading. 

Faropoint picked up two buildings totaling nearly 275,000 square feet. The properties included 327 Chew Ave., a 170,390-square-foot building in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia, and a 104,500-square-foot building at 1211 Ford Road in the Bridgewater Industrial Park in Bensalem.

Greek Development separately bought six buildings totaling 173,128 square feet on 15 acres. The acquisition adds to Greek’s presence in the area. It bought last June a nearby 305,706-square-foot industrial building at 2121 Wheatsheaf Lane.

*Article courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journal

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

Amazon-leased warehouse in North Philadelphia sells for over three times the last trading price in 2020

A newly renovated industrial building in North Philadelphia leased by Amazon.com Inc. has been acquired for nearly $28 million, more than three times the amount it sold for in 2020.

Irvine, California-based LBA Realty purchased 700 Ramona Ave. from SBG Real Estate LLC.

The 17.5-acre property is fully leased by Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and includes a 98,652-square-foot warehouse as well as parking for 352 vans needed for same-day delivery of its products. The sale of the building breaks down to $283 per square foot.

At the time of SBG’s purchase of 700 Ramona in April 2020, the property sat vacant and spanned two buildings totaling 330,000 square feet. Amazon signed a lease for the 98,652-square-foot space in 2021 and its parking requirement pushed the developer to forgo renovations to the second building and instead raze it to meet Amazon’s heavy parking requirement.

Amazon’s lease at 700 Ramona once again underscores the impact the online retail giant is having on the value of industrial real estate. Amazon holds a 10-year lease on the property valued at nearly $12 million, according to Lee & Associates of Eastern Pennsylvania, which brokered the recent sale of the building.

*Article courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journal 

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

As development marches northward, COFCO sells North American Street building for $8.75M

COFCO has sold its 64,000-square-foot warehouse that also served as its corporate headquarters and showroom at 2200 N. American St. in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia for $8.75 million. 

The corporate office furnishings dealer bought the building in the fall of 1999 for $1.5 million. Brick Capital Real Estate Development, a Philadelphia developer of multifamily properties, purchased the property that spans an entire block. 

“It was not on the market but after the sixth time I said no, I was given an offer I couldn’t turn down,” said Joan Waters, CEO at COFCO. “To be honest, the neighborhood continues to turn residential and it is no longer just an industrial corridor. It makes me very sad to see what has happened to the area and once we received the unbelievably high offer it just made sense to sell.”

Waters saw the shift coming more than five years ago and it worried her.

*Article courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journal

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

2021 in Review: A dizzying year for the Greater Philadelphia industrial real estate market

In December 2020, DH Property Holdings bought 67 acres at 5000 Richmond St. in the Bridesburg section of Philadelphia and is now ready to move forward with a $120 million speculative development of two large warehouse-distribution buildings. 

One building will total 348,000 square feet and the other 411,0000 square feet, joining upwards of 15 million square feet of industrial development in various stages in Northeast Philadelphia and nearby neighborhoods. 

“We are strong believers in the urban infill market for logistics distribution facilities,” said Dov Hertz, founder and principal of DH Property. “We think our location at 5000 Richmond is, if not the best, one of the best locations in the market.”

*Article courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journal

For more information about Philly industrial space for sale or lease in Philadelphia and Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

Wharton Equity Partners pays $22.5M for industrial building in Croydon

Wharton Equity Partners has acquired a 200,000-square-foot industrial building in Croydon for $22.5 million and plans a series of upgrades to the property that has been owned and occupied by the same company for nearly three decades. 

Mid-Atlantic Distribution, a third-party logistics company headquartered in Pennsauken, New Jersey, sold the building at 2955 State Road in an off-market transaction and signed a short-term lease to remain in the building until mid-2022. 

The Croydon building was part of Wharton’s acquisition this fall of eight properties totaling 450,000 square feet it purchased across the region, including in Reading and South Jersey. “This is a unique opportunity for us to reintroduce a building to the market that has historically been unavailable to the tenant community,” said Nick Aileo of Wharton Equity. 

The real estate company plans to move forward with interior and exterior renovations including repaving the parking lot, new signage, landscaping as well as adding heat and other mechanical upgrades after Mid-Atlantic moves out next year. It has already painted the exterior of the structure. 

*Article courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journal

For more information about Philly industrial space for sale or lease in Philadelphia and Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

EQT Exeter buys King of Prussia industrial building for $7.65M

EQT Exeter has paid $7.65 million for 300 S. Gulph Road, a 43,376-square-foot warehouse in King of Prussia. 

The property was sold by Long Road Associates LP, according to Montgomery County property records. The last time it traded was in 2003 when Long Road bought it for $1.46 million. 

The building, which was developed in the early 1970s, sits on 4.46 acres and is less than a mile from Route 202, the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Schuylkill Expressway. It is occupied by Lansing Building Products. 

Last year, Lansing bought the distribution business of Harvey Building Products, a Waltham, Massachusetts, company that had been the previous occupant of 300 S. Gulph. When the two companies combined, it gave Lansing 113 branches across 35 states and total sales of $1.1 billion in 2019. 

*Article courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journal

For more information about Philly industrial space for sale or lease in Philadelphia and Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

WCRE Completes a +/-240,000 SF Industrial Sale

5460 Pottsville Pike, Leesport, Pennsylvania

WCRE is proud to have represented 141821 Wyomissing, LLC d/b/a Seakeeper in the acquisition of 5460 Pottsville Pike, Leesport, Pennsylvania.

Seakeeper purchased this +/- 240,000 square foot industrial property situated on +/- 25.43 acres from Schneider Electric USA, Inc.

The property is an exceptionally clean manufacturing and assembly operations facility and has over 5,900’ of road frontage on Pottsville Pike, which has an average daily traffic volume of nearly 29,000 vehicles. The property is convenient to I-78 and downtown Reading, thereby providing access to a plentiful labor pool and points throughout the region.

Seakeeper will move its current manufacturing operations from Mohton, Pennsylvania to this new location in Leesport. This newly acquired location will allow Seakeeper to expand in Berks County and keep its existing labor force.

Lee Fein, Senior Vice President at WCRE exclusively represented the buyer in this transaction.

WCRE Completes Flex Sale with Wharton Industrial Partners

WCRE is proud to have represented Wharton Industrial Partners in the acquisition of 19 Creek Parkway in Boothwyn, Pennsylvania.

19 Creek Parkway is an approximately 22,000 square foot flex industrial building situated on 1.8 acres. This well-located warehouse property is fully leased to Flowserv Corp.

19 Creek Parkway provides direct access to Routes 322 and is minutes from I-95 and the Commodore Berry Bridge. This asset is well positioned in a very dynamic and active Delaware Submarket

This is WCRE’s second transaction this year with Wharton Industrial Partners and now Wharton’s holdings total approximately 2 million square feet of quality, in-fill industrial properties in core Greater Philadelphia markets

The sale of this property adds to WCRE’s growing number of successful Industrial transactions in the Southern New Jersey & Philadelphia region.

Sean Kelly, Senior Advisor at WCRE represented the Buyer in this transaction.