By Meghan Hall
Atlanta, Ga.-based Pexco, a specialty plastics company, has multiple manufacturing facilities around the country, putting it in every major manufacturing market in North America, including the Puget Sound. The company’s facilities located at 3110 70th Ave. E. in Fife, however, have recently traded hands, and the firm will have a new landlord in the form of Renton, Wash.-based Ashton Capital Corporation. According to Pierce County public documents, Ashton Capital, an entity associated with Dough Mergenthaler, purchased the building for $16.048 million from Gregory Bertch and Bertch Capital Partners.
Public documents indicate that the assessed value of the property is just under $7.719 million. Public documents also indicate that Mergenthaler had initially purchased a portion of the site back in 2008 for $111,540 from the City of Fife. The site in total covers 6.75 acres.
Mergenthaler has been associated with the Ashton Capital Corporation, a holding company, since 1988.
Bertch Capital Partners, a family-owned and operated business, was formed in 2008 after transitioning out of wood products manufacturing and into commercial real estate investment and development. The firm is currently working to develop Seaway West, a state-of-the-art industrial development located in Everett. Bertch Capital’s website indicates the development will total 186,536 square feet spread across two buildings on 16.15 acres.
The Puget Sound’s industrial market has been picking up as of late, as key sectors of the industry in manufacturing, construction, transportation and warehousing continue to grow. According to Kidder Mathews’ First Quarter Industrial Report, jobs in these areas are up by about 15,800, or 40 percent, and all four sectors are expected to continue to grow over the next year. In Pierce County where the Pexco property is located, 625,000 square feet of industrial space will be occupied over the next nine months, while construction for industrial assets in Pierce County accounts for 60 percent of the region’s product under development. 32 percent of the space currently under construction in Pierce County is pre-leased, indicating the presence of an active and growing market.
