Crescent, Fortius Capital Sell Charlotte Industrial Asset

Pacolet Milliken acquired AXIAL Rapid Commerce, a recently built, Class A warehouse in Charlotte, N.C., that is fully leased by Amazon, from Crescent Communities and Fortius Capital.

The price was not disclosed. However, Mecklenburg County records indicate the entity created by the buyer for the acquisition secured a $42 million loan from Atlantic Union Bank, the Charlotte Business Journal reported.

Pacolet Milliken, a family-owned Greenville, S.C.,-based investment company, was the project’s limited partner.

The partners began construction of the 449,069-square-foot facility on 32.3 acres at 500 Rhyne Road in September 2023 and completed it last year. The previous owners received a $30.2 million construction loan in July 2023 from TD Bank, according to Yardi Matrix data.

Pacolet Milliken and TD Bank served as financial partners on the development. Other development team members included Evans General Contractors, DMA Architecture and Osborn Engineering, the civil engineer on the project. Colliers handed leasing.

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In October, Amazon signed a lease for the rear-load asset for use as a Same-Day Delivery facility. The lease was one of the largest industrial deals this year in the region. The Amazon facility is expected to create hundreds of direct and indirect jobs.

Closer look at AXIAL Rapid Commerce

Located within the 1.5 million-square-foot Rapid Commerce Park, AXIAL Rapid Commerce offers direct access to Charlotte Douglas International Airport as well as Interstates 485 and 85. Tenants can reach more than 50 percent of the U.S. population within a single day’s drive and 75 percent within two days, positioning the property as a strategic hub for logistics, manufacturing and distribution users across the East Coast and reflecting broader industrial market trends in logistics-driven site selection.

The facility has a 36-foot clear height and includes 3,850 square feet of office space, 338 auto parking spaces, 106 trailer parking spaces, two drive-in doors and 85 dock-high doors. The space received LEED v4 BD+C Core and Shell Silver certification. Following LEED standards, the developers achieved a 14 percent reduction in embodied carbon during the construction. The project utilized sustainable features such as heat island reduction, advanced recycling systems and environmentally responsible materials.

Crescent and Fortius worked with Mecklenburg County Parks & Recreation, Centralina Regional Council and Beacon Partners to establish a new trail system and public park within the 140-acre Rapid Commerce Park.

Building AXIAL Industrial

Crescent, a Charlotte-based national real estate investor, developer and operator, rebranded its industrial platform in February 2022 as AXIAL Industrial. The firm also unveiled development plans for three industrial developments totaling almost 1.7 million square feet across eight buildings in three markets—AXIAL Crosspoint in Greenville; AXIAL Bonds Farm in Concord, N.C., and AXIAL 302 Manatee in Bradenton, Fla. The Greenville property, a three-building, 558,000-square-foot campus, was completed in February 2024.

The company has executed more than $921 million in AXIAL Industrial projects. The current portfolio features 65 industrial projects, with nearly 14.5 million square feet of completed projects and 3 million square feet of projects in development or operation.

In October, Crescent sold Building 200 at AXIAL Southgate 77 in Rock Hill, S.C., to Penzance for $32 million, the CBJ reported, citing York County real estate records. The 220,281-square-foot building at 1203 Galleria Blvd. is fully leased to three tenants.

Also in October, Crescent sold AXIAL Gateway 95, a more than 500,000-square-foot logistics facility located near Richmond, Va., to LaSalle Investment Management. The property is fully leased to Hillphoenix, a subsidiary of Dover Food Retail and manufacturer of commercial refrigeration systems. The price was not disclosed.

The Fortius Capital team has developed 1.5 million square feet of industrial properties since it was formed in 2017. Projects include Meadows Corporate Park, Springs Business Park and Trade Park at Concord, all in Concord, N.C.; and Lakeshore Corporate Park in Kannapolis, N.C.