Northpath JV Buys South Carolina Industrial Park

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A joint venture between Northpath Investments and TrueStone Group has completed the $34.8 million purchase of 1101 Syphrit Way, a five-building, 748,000-square-foot industrial park in Wellford, S.C. The partnership acquired the property from textile manufacturer Leigh Fibers in a sale-leaseback transaction, marking Northpath’s first industrial purchase in South Carolina.

A JLL Capital Markets team represented the buyer in procuring acquisition financing through MidCap Financial. Lyons Industrial Properties brokered the sale on behalf of Leigh Fibers.

The 1101 Syphrit Way campus was built in 1961 on 56.9 acres, according to CommercialEdge data. The development was 95 percent occupied at the time of sale. Following the transaction, Leigh Fibers will continue to occupy 590,307 square feet at the property it had owned for more than 60 years.

The buildings feature more than four combined dock-high loading platforms with 67 dock positions, rail-capable loading doors and 205-foot truck courts, CommercialEdge data shows. The complex sits at the intersection of routes 29 and 129, adjacent to Interstate 81, placing it midway between many of the Southeastern U.S.’ largest cities and markets.

JLL Managing Director Michael Klein represented the buyer, while Robert Lyons, president of Lyons Industrial Properties, worked on behalf of the seller.

South Carolina’s industrial landscape

The sale of 1101 Syphrit Way took place during a widespread reshoring of the nation’s industrial capabilities, in part due to supply chain instability, geopolitical strife and climate change. For its part, South Carolina saw a downward-trending vacancy rate of 3.10 percent, alongside 23.2 million square feet of space in its construction pipeline at the end of the year’s second quarter, according to a Colliers report.

One of the largest projects in the area is Evergreen Logistics Park, a 2 million-square-foot manufacturing and distribution campus underway in Anderson, S.C. Hunt Midwest broke ground on the development’s first building in June.

Another industrial development is coming online 20 miles from 1101 Syphrit Way. In July, a partnership between SunCap Property Group and the Real Estate business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management started construction on Enterprise 85, a speculative campus in Greenville, S.C. At full build-out, the property will total some 1.6 million square feet.