CRG Taps Into Portland Industrial Market

The company will develop a 350,000-square-foot speculative industrial and logistics facility in Troutdale Reynolds Industrial Park, scheduled for completion next summer.

By Keith Loria

The Cubes at Troutdale

The Cubes at Troutdale

CRG will develop The Cubes at Troutdale, a 350,000-square-foot speculative industrial and logistics facility in Portland, Ore. BatesForum, a subsidiary of Clayco, is serving as the architect on the project and construction is scheduled to start sometime this month, with occupancy coming available around September 2019.

The property will be located on the east side of Portland in Troutdale Reynolds Industrial Park (TRIP) along Interstate 84. The facility will also be in close proximity to the FedEx Ground hub, the Amazon fulfillment center and the Troutdale Airport.

“We liked the investment dynamics of Portland. It’s one of the most supply constrained markets on the West Coast and there’s very strong demand fundamentals there with a good balance of manufacturing and distribution users in that market that are growing or looking to move into more modern facilities,” Mike Wurtsbaugh, CRG’s senior vice president, told Commercial Property Executive. “What’s unique about the West Coast, and Portland in particular, is that it’s a very supply-constrained market and not a lot of land available.”

CRG already had investments in Seattle and see both cities as major markets for its operations and strategy going forward.

“The company philosophy is to grow in primary strategic markets and we view the Pacific Northwest as a primarily logistics hub,” Wurtsbaugh said. “Both Portland and Seattle have a strong regional focus and we’re looking to invest in the top 10 primarily logistic markets where there is strong tenant demand, reasonable supply balance and where capital partners desire to own these properties long-term.”

The Cubes way

The Cubes at Troutdale will be the fifth industrial park under “The Cubes” brand, which follows its strategy of developing for the future and anticipating the enhanced needs of next-generation industrial users.

“What makes this facility stand out is that this is a new, modern bulk distribution facility with truck parking, 36-foot clear building height, cross dock capability, ample trailer storage and car parks,” Wurtsbaugh added. “A lot of the older buildings are under 30-foot clear height, so ours is more typical of the modern area so tenants can go vertical in their cubic space, which makes it more cost-effective.”

According to Wurtsbaugh, e-commerce is driving business at CRG, as the industry demands more modern industrial buildings to accommodate consumer-centric strategies, and only 11 percent of total inventory has been delivered in the last 10 years.

“Our location is well-located on the Interstate Network system, where Portland can serve a regional market, so the majority of our tenants will have some logistic-related operation going on,” Wurtsbaugh said. “And in this new e-commerce world, users want to have the technology and modernization and ability to order product online and have it shipped. Not every company can invest in that level of technology, so they partner with third-party logistics providers, and we see a demand from them.”

CRG has been busy in May, having recently sold a newly constructed, 1 million-square-foot industrial asset to Griffin Capital Co. in Savannah, Ga., for $57 million. In January, CRG acquired DuPont Corporate Center, a former Intel campus located south of Seattle.

Rendering courtesy of CRG

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