Cintas Slims Down, Diamond Bulks Up

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

Cintas Document Storage Portfolio

A Cincinnati-based company is trimming its Ohio portfolio. Cintas Corp. sold five industrial buildings in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus for $26.5 million to Mount Kisco, N.Y.-based Diamond Properties.

The 569,225-square-foot portfolio was fully leased at the time of the sale. It includes the building at 690 Crescentville Road in West Chester Township, which, according to the Cincinnati Business Courier, traded for $10.3 million. Also included in the deal were facilities at 2500 Charter St. in Columbus, 2612 Walcutt Road in Hilliard and two buildings at One Andrews Circle in Brecksville.

The five properties were previously occupied by Cintas, which sold its document storage and imaging business last November to Access, the records management company.

CBRE’s Investment Properties team and CBRE’s Global Workplace Solutions team worked together as advisors on the transaction and sourced the buyer. In addition, CBRE’s Midwest Debt and Structured Finance team secured financing on behalf of Diamond Properties.

“Despite the fact that the portfolio consisted of buildings that are special purpose in nature, the offering attracted multiple bidders ranging from private investors to institutional capital sources,” said Keith Yearout of the Investment Properties Group in a statement.

Securing financing was no easy task. According to CBRE, the biggest challenge was the fact that a privately held, non-credit tenant occupies 93 percent of the leased space on a seven-year term. Dan Gable and Jason Brown of the Debt and Structured Finance team marketed the debt to various life insurance companies, banks and CMBS lenders.

“CBRE worked alongside Diamond Properties and Natixis to arrange a 10-year fixed rate loan,” Gable explained. “Ultimately, Natixis was comfortable with the relationship with the sponsor, diversification of locations and quality of the real estate, as all five buildings are located in industrial parks with easy highway access and superior clear heights.”

Photo credit: CBRE