Velocity Venture Partners Buys South Jersey Department Store Box For Industrial Conversion
Velocity Venture Partners isn't showing any signs of slowing down its spending spree in the Philadelphia-area industrial market.
The Bala Cynwyd-based Velocity closed on the $5.3M acquisition of the 120K SF former Bradlees department store at 222 South White Horse Pike in Stratford, New Jersey, on Monday, with plans to spend $3M converting it to industrial use, co-founder and principal Tony Grelli told Bisnow.
The seller, an affiliate of digital infrastructure company Crown Castle, took the property through the entitlement process for its own conversion plans that didn't come to fruition. Velocity has been in contact with leadership of the South Jersey borough of Stratford about its plans for the building, which has been vacant since Bradlees ceased operations in 2001, Grelli said.
“Stratford is a small borough, and they’re working with us to get this site active,” he said. “There is not a large number of commercial or industrial buildings there. And Stratford residents have been looking at this building for forever, saying, ‘It’s been 20 years. Something has to happen here.’”
Velocity, which Grelli leads with fellow co-founder and principal Zach Moore, has acquired a number of properties in the Philly region over the past year as it builds a portfolio of updated warehouses from previous generations and conversions of other suburban asset classes like office and retail. As its portfolio has grown — to over 8M SF, Grelli said — so has its reputation.
“Area brokers know we don’t just buy existing industrial [properties]; we also convert other uses,” Grelli said. “So after we put the word out that we’re looking for opportunities to convert, a broker brought this opportunity to us.”
Unlike the Quakertown shopping center Velocity purchased at the beginning of June, 222 South White Horse Pike is just one building within a shopping center otherwise occupied by operating retail tenants, including an adjacent Goodwill and a Dollar General outparcel.
Velocity will install a brand-new roof this week, to be followed by demolition of the building’s external facade, a vestige of its department store past, in the first month or so of ownership. Internal work includes new lighting and HVAC, while the biggest undertaking will be digging into the parking lot to lower the grade for the installation of additional loading docks in the front to supplement docks the store already had in the back.
Velocity will need to apply for a construction permit for the digging, which it plans to do this week, Grelli said.
“After that, we’re left with a white-box product in a painted warehouse where we can meet with tenants and sell the product to their vision,” he said.
