Sagard Acquires Baltimore-Area Distribution Facility

Sagard Real Estate has acquired 7001 Quad Ave., a 621,144-square-foot Class A distribution facility in Rosedale, Md., for $91 million. The seller was not disclosed, but Yardi Matrix indicates that the previous owner was LBA Realty.

7001 Quad Ave., also known as Eastport Industrial Business Center, sits on a 32-acre site and was completed in 2004. The cross-dock facility is designed for high-volume distribution and features 34-foot clear heights.

The property is fully leased food and beverage distributors, including a candy company and a wine-and-spirits distributor, along with third-party logistics providers.

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The location is near the convergence of interstates 95, 695 and 895, about five miles from the Port of Baltimore’s Seagirt and Dundalk marine terminals and downtown Baltimore.

In a prepared statement, Belah Terentjev, director of acquisitions at Sagard Real Estate, described the property as difficult to replicate in an infill port market. Sagard added that Baltimore County East, the region’s largest industrial submarket, benefits from a combination of supply constraints, transportation connectivity and proximity to the Port of Baltimore.

Baltimore industrial struggles toward stability

Another Baltimore-area acquisition came in June, when Terreno Realty Corp. acquired a three-building, 305,000-square-foot industrial property in Landover, Md., from Clarion Partners for $77.1 million.

And in July, Merritt Properties secured a $621 million refinancing loan for a portion of its Maryland Industrial Portfolio, reportedly one of the largest privately owned light industrial portfolios in the Mid-Atlantic. M&T Bank funded the fully underwritten, seven-year loan in a deal arranged by JLL Capital Markets. The portfolio comprises 58 assets totaling about 6.3 million square feet across the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., markets.

The metro Baltimore industrial market is showing “signs of tentative stabilization,” according to a second-quarter report from CBRE. Net absorption of 288,000 square feet was in contrast to a sharp loss in the first quarter. Still, vacancy is 80 basis points higher year-over-year. Six bulk renewal leases totaling 2.3 million square feet evidenced sustained demand for large blocks of space.

The Baltimore County East submarket has a total availability of 11.4 percent on an inventory of 33.9 million square feet. Year-to-date net absorption has been 5,000 square feet, while deliveries have totaled 50,000 square feet and about 1.1 million square feet is under construction, CBRE reported.