By Jack Stubbs
Last Friday, a 237,000 square foot cold storage facility in Burien occupied by Western Distribution Services, sold for $57.5 million, or about $243 per square foot, according to public records filed with King County. The buyer was an entity associated with San Francisco-based Bentall Kennedy Real Estate Services. The seller was Bridge Development Partners, a Chicago-based investment firm that focuses on the development of investment-grade facilities. The deal closed and was recorded on September 8th.
Built in early 2017, the asset is a cold storage facility located at 1010 S. 146th St. in the city of Burien. Bridge Development Partners’ decision to sell the warehouse comes just one year after they broke ground on the new facility. The company just held a ribbon-cutting ceremony in June of 2017 for the facility.
At the time of the groundbreaking last September, the 237,000 square foot warehouse reflected the company’s attempt to gain a foothold in the Seattle market, according to Brian Niven, a principal in cold storage based in Itasca, Illinois. “We currently own about 1.3 million square feet of cold in Chicago, and we’re looking to expand nationally. So this is our test-case for cold, as far as development,” Niven said at the groundbreaking last year.
With over 1,000 employees located at twelve offices throughout Canada and key U.S. markets, Bentall Kennedy is one of North America’s largest providers of real estate services, according to its website. The company also has a presence that is felt prominently in the Pacific Northwest, with corporate offices in Toronto, Vancouver, San Francisco and Seattle. The company has two primary operating groups: Investment Management, advising public and corporate entities on their investments in multi-family, commercial and industrial real estate assets, and Real Estate Services, the provision of expertise concerning the construction, refurbishment and development of commercial and industrial properties.
Bridge Development Partners’ decision to sell the Western Distribution Services facility a year after breaking ground on the site is in line with their larger company-wide strategy, which emphasizes the acquisition of Class A and B facilities that offer the opportunity to add long-term value through investment. Bridge Development is one of the top industrial developers in some of the most preeminent markets in the U.S. including New York, Miami, Chicago and Southern California.
Neither the buyer nor the seller responded for comment about the details of the transaction.
