By Meghan Hall
Just as the growth of Amazon has caused office fundamentals space to skyrocket, so has investor interest in industrial properties throughout the Puget Sound. In a transaction that closed on December 17th, PMF Investments sold a FedEx ground distribution center in Redmond for $81.5 million, or about $388 per square foot. The buyer of the property was an entity associated with RPT Seattle East Industrial LLC, who is based in Atlanta, Ga.
The distribution center was constructed in 2013 and totals 210,321 square feet, according to PMF Investments’ website. Located at 18795 NE 73rd Street in Redmond, the property was developed as a build-to-suit for FedEx. It is the largest industrial building in Redmond and is also located on a more than one million square foot lot.
The center is state-of-the-art and is home to a custom, built-in-place conveyor system that runs 24 hours a day to sort and organize packages. The building also includes 62 loading bays and is the first FedEx building to achieve LEED Silver certification.
PMF Investments, based in Bellevue, Wash., has been in operation since 1978 and has worked on industrial and commercial projects in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho and Ohio. The firm also owns the Edmonds Shopping Center, Kirkland’s Homeport Building and Marina, the Sheraton Hotel in Bellevue and Pioneer Crossing in Puyallup.
While the Eastside Industrial market is generally considered very healthy, according to a third quarter report released by Cushman and Wakefield, few industrial transactions of this size have taken place throughout not just the submarket, but across the Puget Sound. According to Cushman and Wakefield, some of the larger property transactions of the third quarter also included the sale of Redmond West on Willows. The property—also located in Redmond and which totals 71,818 square feet—sold for $19.4 million, or $320 per square foot. The next largest industrial transaction of the quarter was the sale of the Crown Distribution Building by Spirit Realty Capital in North Snohomish for $12.2 million, or $130 per square foot, further emphasizing the magnitude of the FedEx Distribution Center sale.
