New Ownership Has Plans To Extensively Reposition The Facility And Has Retained CBRE As The Exclusive Leasing Agent
CBRE today announced that it has arranged for the sale of a 283,500 sq. ft. industrial facility located at 2400 Weccacoe Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The 13.5-acre property was acquired by Wharton Industrial Partners and Walton Street Capital for an undisclosed sale price.
CBRE’s Patrick Green and Michael Mullen represented the seller, a Zurich-based individual investor who purchased the property in 2006. New ownership has tapped both Green and Mullen, in addition to CBRE Senior Vice President Jake Terkanian, to spearhead the leasing campaign at the property.
Wharton Industrial and Walton Street plan to invest upwards of $10 million to completely transform the site, which it will rebrand as “SoPhi (pronounced, S?fee)Logistics Center.” Improvements will include installing a new roof, leveling the interior floors, adding new lights, expanding and upgrading the loading docks, repaving the entire site, painting the interior and exterior of the building, adding new modern tailgate doors and fresh landscaping, among other upgrades. The new facility is expected to deliver in early 2020.
“The buyer was attracted to the location of this facility being adjacent to the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal and its close proximity to Center City and University City,” said Patrick Green, Executive Vice President, CBRE. “We are thrilled that the new ownership has retained CBRE to reimagine the facility into a modern distribution center that will attract premier tenants. Once completed, this property will truly connect Philadelphia’s people, ports and roads.”
“We are very excited to have acquired 2400 Weccacoe Avenue as it provides a unique opportunity to create a true ‘last mile’ warehouse in the middle of the fifth largest MSA in the United States,” notes Peter C. Lewis, President of Wharton Industrial. “We are planning a carefully curated extensive renovation to meet the needs of today’s usersand are looking forward to working closely with CBRE to see this asset reach its true potential.”
Originally built in 1970, the facility has been retrofitted and converted for many different uses over the last few decades, most recently serving as the home to Hyundai Rotem, a South Korean company that vacated the property in 2018.
The SoPhi Logistics Centeris strategically located near the Port of Philadelphia, Philadelphia International Airport, Interstates 95, 295 and 76 and just three miles from Philadelphia City Hall.
About CBRE Group, Inc.
CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Los Angeles, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (based on 2018 revenue). The company has more than 90,000 employees (excluding affiliates) and serves real estate investors and occupiers through more than 480 offices (excluding affiliates) worldwide. CBRE offers a broad range of integrated services, including facilities, transaction and project management; property management; investment management; appraisal and valuation; property leasing; strategic consulting; property sales; mortgage services and development services. Please visit our website at www.cbre.com.
About Wharton Industrial Partners
Wharton Industrial Partners, a platform company of New York City-based Wharton Equity Partners which was formed in 1987, is a developer, owner and operator of large bulk distribution centers and infill warehouses in the eastern US. Currently, the firm has almost 3 million square feet under development and over $100 million of existing properties in its pipeline.
About Walton Street Capital
Walton Street Capital, L.L.C. is a private equity real estate investment firm based in Chicago that sponsor’s equity and debt investment funds. Since its founding in 1994, affiliates of Walton Street have received total equity commitments of $12 billion from public and corporate pension plans, foreign institutions, insurance companies and banks, endowments and foundations, trusts, and high net worth individuals. Through its affiliates, Walton Street has invested and/or committed to invest in more than 350 separate transactions in U.S. and international real estate, including the development and acquisition of office, hotel, retail, industrial, multi-family, for-sale residential, senior and student housing, gaming and other assets through both individual, portfolio and company-level transactions.
