Blue Ocean Lands Major Industrial Lease

Halethorpe Manufacturing and Distribution Center. Image courtesy of Blue Ocean

Blue Ocean has leased 133,520 square feet of its 692,492-square-foot Halethorpe Manufacturing and Distribution Center in metro Baltimore to Barker Steel Mid-Atlantic. The property is at 1954 Halethorpe Farms Road, close to both I-95 and I-695 and less than a mile from the Halethorpe station on the MARC Penn Line.

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The building reportedly features heavy infrastructure, high clear height and broad column spacing. The property has a long history, having been used to manufacture aircraft components in World War II. Blue Ocean purchased the building in 2015.

Jared Engel and Steve Cornblatt of Trout Daniel & Associates represented Blue Ocean in the leasing transaction. Barker Steel Mid-Atlantic was represented by Toby Mink of CBRE. A Blue Ocean spokesperson did not reply to Commercial Property Executive’s request for additional information.

Dependent on trade

The metro Baltimore industrial market finished last year with its average vacancy having decreased for the fourth straight year, according to a first-quarter report from MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate Services.

Though absorption was nearly 3 million square feet in the first quarter, that surge rested on a 1.5 million-square-foot lease by Floor & Decor and a 1.2 million-square-foot lease from Home Depot. MacKenzie also cautioned that because the Port of Baltimore is crucial to the health of the metro’s industrial market, a major disruption to the international supply chain could hit the market hard.

The Arbutus submarket saw about 68,000 square feet of negative net absorption in the first quarter, on an inventory of about 7.7 million square feet, again according to MacKenzie. Average asking rents in the submarket are $3.71 per square foot.

Less than three weeks ago, Amazon acquired a six-building, 648,173-square-foot industrial portfolio in the Baltimore Commons Business Park. The Techwood Business Center traded for $91 million.