News
BISNOW EXCLUSIVE: PANATTONI'S PENNSYLVANIA PUSH
July 7, 2011
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| Panattoni's D. Reid Townsend tells us buying opportunistic land and vacancy in central PA is ?coming back.? In December, his firm closed on 38 acres to support a 550k SF project and last week purchased 117 "shovel ready" acres for twin 1M SF distribution centers outside Carlisle. Another deal (an existing 200k SF distribution center being vacated by Harley-Davidson in York) is slated to close later this month. Why all the buys? "Tenant demand." Retailers are emerging from the recession with "retooled distribution and on-line business models, driving consolidation and requirements in the range of 500k to 1.5M SF." With limited existing supply and no spec construction starts since 2008, the "market will require build-to-suit development to fulfill renewed demand.? In addition to the buys, in June Panattoni sold a completed 580k SF building in Lehigh Valley to Allen Distribution. The three building park had all of its 1.5M SF absorbed in the past six months, and Panattoni is preparing to develop a spec building on the remaining pad sites (400k SF and 200k SF) later this year. |
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| We snapped Reid with First Potomac Management's Matt Wilson at Transwestern's Trendlines conference in DC this winter. All the activity is being fueled by Panattoni's JV with CalSTRS. ?We sold $800M of property to seed the venture in December,? he says, and the pension fund kicks in $300M to $500M per year for new acquisitions, spec development, and build-to-suits. ?PanCal requires no project-specific debt or equity-raising, which allows us to respond to market opportunities and move quickly with a certainty of closing.? Expect to see plenty more opportunistic investment from Reid over the next several years. |
