By Jack Stubbs
The South King County industrial market—in particular the Kent Valley area, which ranges from the city of Kent to Puyallup further South—has seen an active three quarters this year, and another industrial property recently changed hands.
On June 19th, Denver, Colorado-based Black Creek Group, a real estate investment firm that manages industrial, retail, commercial and multifamily properties in several markets throughout the U.S., spent $16 million, or approximately $157 per square foot, to acquire a warehouse/distribution facility in Kent, King County records show. The seller of the property was Sweetener Products LLC, a California-based distributor for and supplier of sweetener products across the Western U.S.
The buyer did not respond to calls for comment about the recent transaction in time for the publishing of this story.
The subject property, located at 8032 S 194th St., is a one-story warehouse building constructed in 1978 that totals 101,890 square feet, according to public records. According to the seller’s web site, the building directly adjacent to the recently-sold property—located at 8030 S. 194th St.—currently serves as one of the company’s distribution facilities.
It is not entirely clear how much space is currently available in the recently-sold building. According to a listing on loopnet.com, as of March 2019 there were just over 42,000 square feet of industrial space available for lease at the property.
The property is about four miles north of Kent, eight miles north of Auburn via State Route 167 and roughly six miles east of Sea-Tac Airport. The building sits in close proximity to several other logistics/distribution facilities, some of which include Convoy Supply Inc., The Home Depot Distribution Center, and OnTrac, a logistics services company.
Since the early 1990s, Black Creek Group has owned and operated approximately 1,400 office, industrial, retail and multifamily properties across North America, and has developed more than $3 billion worth of properties.
On the industrial side, the company has acquired and operated more than $11 billion of industrial distribution facilities—totaling more than 185 million square feet—across its West Coast portfolio. Black Creek Group’s Puget Sound region portfolio includes the Tacoma Logistics Center, a 1.1 million square foot speculative development project—comprised of two Class A warehouse/distribution buildings—located on a 58-acre parcel within the Port of Tacoma.
The city of Kent continues to garner interest, with various industrial properties having sold over the last couple of quarters. In early May, San Francisco-based Lift Partners acquired a 113,591 square foot office/warehouse building—located at 22441 76th Ave. S.—for $16.5 million, or about $145 per square foot, from Federal Way-based R&M Investments LLC.
In early February, LBA Realty—a company that operates a wide range of office and industrial properties in major gateway markets throughout the U.S. including Seattle and San Francisco—spent $12.7 million, or about $129 per square foot, to acquire a 98,700 square foot warehouse located at 7901 S. 190th St. in Kent.
