A Pennsylvania real estate firm has purchased one of the largest industrial properties in the Baltimore-Washington corridor for $40 million.
Exeter Property Group acquired the 612,900-square-foot distribution facility on Dorsey Run Road in Jessup from Washington-based Baltimore Land Holdings. CB Richard Ellis? Baltimore office arranged the sale and will serve as Exeter?s leasing agent.
“Buildings like this always trade because of where they are,” said Benjamin Meisels, the CBRE vice president who was involved in the property sale. “There?s always going to be a market for this kind of space.”
Exeter was “a logical buyer” of the property, Meisels said, because last year the group purchased a 300,000-square-foot building from Baltimore Land Holdings just north of the Dorsey Run Road location.
Scott Dougherty, mid-Atlantic region investment officer at Exeter, said the Baltimore-Washington corridor is “highly attractive both for the short and long term.” The area?s strong population and income growth, and increasing federal spending and jobs related to Base Realignment and Closure appealed to Exeter, Dougherty said.
Howard County?s industrial space vacancy rate was 12.8 percent in the second quarter of 2008, while the average for the Baltimore region was 11 percent, according to data from Cushman & Wakefield. There are 538 industrial buildings in the county.
“Exeter Property Group has a critical mass on Dorsey Run Road, which is being improved and extended from Route 175 to Route 1,” Dougherty said. “With this acquisition, Exeter is able to serve customers with needs from 40,000 to 400,000 square feet in the Baltimore-Washington corridor.”
The industrial building, built in 2006, is on 30 acres and has 135 loading docks and 32-foot ceilings. The property is 30 percent leased, with information protection and storage firm Iron Mountain occupying 178,000 square feet.
John Wilhide, the CBRE senior vice president who will handle leasing of the property, said Exeter would be flexible with subdividing the building for multiple tenants.
“With much of the Class A industrial space having been absorbed in the area, we?re confident we?ll be able to have the space leased up in six to nine months,” Wilhide said. “There?s significant demand for industrial space in the Baltimore-Washington corridor.”
