By Meghan Hall
Oak Brook, Ill.-based CenterPoint Properties has been expanding steadily throughout South Seattle, with its newest acquisition in Fife, Wash., adding to its square footage in the region. In a transaction that closed on December 23rd, but just only recently recorded, CenterPoint purchased a warehouse, currently home to American Fast Freight, for $46.5 million. The seller of the property was Hayward, Calif.-based Odyssey Logistics and Technology, who acquired AFF last year.
Located at 7400 45th St. Court E., the property includes a one-story transit warehouse built in 2009, according to Pierce County assessor’s parcel data. The building totals 82,500 square feet. The building is considered AFF’s headquarters. Whether AFF will move in the near future and what CenterPoint plans to do with the property is yet unclear.
In September of 2018, CenterPoint spent $49 million, or about $166 per square foot to acquire a distribution center in Kent, Wash. The center totals 294,912 square feet on more than 14 acres. In August of 2018, CenterPoint also spent $73 million on a two-building portfolio totaling nearly 343,000 square feet in South Seattle.
Odyssey acquired AFF Global Logistics just over a year ago in December of 2018 for $465 million. Odyssey, according to its website, has a freight network exceeding $3 billion globally, and its services include international transportation management, intermodal services trucking services and consulting.
Overall, Seattle has roughly 40.4 million square feet of manufacturing, warehouse and flex space, with Pierce County holding just over 68 million square feet of that inventory. The biggest transactions of the quarter took place in North and Central Seattle, with Bain Capital purchasing 60 South for $22MM, and Blue Sky Cleaners and Seattle Pottery Supply Building selling for $8.5 million apiece to Pacific Opportunity Fund and Timberlane, respectively.
Pierce County saw rental rates for shell and warehouse space increase 9.2 percent year over year to $0.71 per square foot. Across the region, vacancy increase to 5.5 percent due to 1.4 million square feet of space at the Dupont Corporate and Logistics Centers hitting the market.
3PLs like AFF, big-name distributors and other e-commerce giants were the companies primarily looking for space throughout the region, according to Colliers International. The region’s strong industrial market is likely to continue, with vacancy across the board hovering at around 6 percent, and there is more than 13 million square feet of proposed projects in the pipeline, which will offer opportunity for growth and expansion.
