Two buildings in the AmeriPlex at the Port business park in Portage sold for a record price.
The Addison and Clark buildings at 6625 and 6675 Daniel Burnham Drive sold for $16.5 million, according to the Chicago-based commercial real estate agent Greenstone Partners. That makes the highest price per square foot ever for a multi-tenant industrial building with more than 50,000 square feet in Northwest Indiana, according to CoStar data.
The neighboring buildings, whose names pay homage to the iconic location of Wrigley Field on Chicago's North Side, total 166,134 square feet. They're located in the AmeriPlex and the Port business park between Interstate 80/94 and the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor.
Greenstone Partners' Managing Partner Jason St. John represented the seller, a private investor from Florida. He lined up the buyer, the Southern California-based real estate investment group Sperry Equities.
"The buyer was attracted by the portfolio's strategic location within one of the region's most well-leased submarkets, along with the meaningful mark-to-market opportunity within the existing income stream," St. John said. "Investor demand was extremely strong, as demonstrated by multiple competitive bids and more than 150 unique buyer registrations."
The buildings have long-term tenants like SNIP Spay & Neuter, Applied Industrial Technologies, Vision Wheel and the Flowserve Corporations. They have an average tenure of 13 years. The buildings are adaptable and could be configured to have suites ranging from 10,000 to 50,000 square feet for service, e-commerce or light industrial uses.
"Shallow bay industrial assets are increasingly in demand because they offer adaptability, efficient suite sizes, and exposure to a wide tenant pool," St. John said. "This transaction demonstrates the continued appetite for well-located, functional industrial product."
AmeriPlex at the Port is home to many companies like Amazon Web Services, Fronius, BNutty, Fagor Arrasate, International Entrances and Operating Engineers Local 150. It's also home to an array of retail and restaurant options, including Bass Pro Shops, Quaker Steak and Lube, Family Express, Starbucks, LongHorn Steakhouse and Fairway Indoor Golf.
Porter County has 21.7 million square feet of industrial space with just 2.9% vacancy. It has absorbed more than 2.4 million square feet over the past year, ranking 4th among the 21 industrial submarkets in Chicagoland, according to Greenstone Partners.
The high demand has driven up industrial rents in Porter County by about 65%.