By Jack Stubbs
Los Angeles-based Clarion Partners has been present in the Puget Sound region over the last few months, and the company recently added another property to its local portfolio. On Thursday, October 18th, the West Valley Distribution Center in Kent sold for $11.9 million, or approximately $159 per square foot, King County records show. Clarion purchased the property from Saberhagen-Matson LLC an entity affiliated with John R. O’Neil and based in Kent.
Clarion Partners declined to comment on the transaction.
The subject property, located at 7043 – 7063 S 190th St., is a Class B industrial/warehouse building that totals 74,777 rentable square feet, according to the property listing on loopnet.com. The two-story building was constructed in 1975 and sits on an approximately four-acre lot. It is not entirely clear how much space is currently available in the property. According to Google Maps, one of the current tenants is Bay Insulation Supply of Washington.
The asset—which sits in close proximity to a number of other warehouse/manufacturing buildings—is approximately four miles north of downtown Kent and three miles south of Tukwila. Additionally, the property is roughly five miles from access to Interstate-5 and two miles from Washington State Route 167.
Kent has long been regarded as a hub of logistics and manufacturing activity, and there have been several transactions regarding industrial assets in recent months. In early June, TH Real Estate purchased a roughly 63,500 square foot warehouse property located at 7819 S 206th St. for $10.5 million, or approximately $165 per square foot, from DRA Advisors LLC. More recently in early September, CenterPoint Properties announced its acquisition of a 294,912 square foot distribution center—located at 7650 South 228th Street—for $49 million, or approximately $166 per square foot.
Beyond the Puget Sound region, the city of Kent is being viewed on the international radar as well. On October 1st, Singapore-based Mapletree Investments Ltd. purchased five industrial properties in Kent totaling just over one million square feet square feet for approximately $185.3 million from San Francisco-based Prologis Inc. The acquisitions were part of a larger international logistics portfolio acquisition: in early October, Mapletree announced the acquisition of a 16.5 million square foot logistics portfolio for $1.1 billion from Prologis.
Originally founded in 1982, Clarion Partners has investments in a wide variety of assets including commercial, retail, industrial, multifamily, residential and hospitality. In terms of the company’s acquisition strategy, Clarion Partners acquires 100 percent ownership interests, forms joint venture partnerships, provides equity capital to developers, and invests in various debt instruments, according to their website. The company currently has $46.6 billion in total assets under management and more than 300 domestic and international institutional investors.
Along with the most recent purchase of the property in Kent, Clarion has been active in the Puget Sound region over the last year or so. In October 2017, Clarion Partners acquired a three-parcel property in Renton—including a 479,100 square foot warehouse building—for $67.1 million, or approximately $140 per square foot, from UK-based global real estate investment management company TH Real Estate. And in late August, the company purchased a four-story office property—currently home to Tableau software and located at 1621 North 34th Street—for $175.85 million, or about $823 per square foot, from Seattle-based Touchstone.
More recently in mid-September, Clarion spent $39.25 million or approximately $560 per square foot to acquire the three-story, 70,019 square foot Lake Washington Park Office Building in Kirkland from SC Lake Washington Park Inc.
