Green Meadows Industrial Park (indicated by red star), where Industrial Partners I now owns two properties, is advantageously situated on the Columbus Pike, near Interstate-71 and the Columbus beltway (I-270).

Wien & Malkin Industrial Partners I, L.P. has completed its fifth property acquisition, a 78,500-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility in Lewis Center, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus. The property is situated within the 100-acre Green Meadows Industrial Park, where the partnership already owns a 300,000-square-foot complex occupied by Volvo International.

Industrial Partners also has gone to contract on a third property in the greater Columbus area, in a deal anticipated to close in late spring, and is in heavy due diligence on an additional transaction, which would be the fund's seventh.

The new Green Meadows Industrial Park acquisition, which closed April 26, has been leased back to the seller, Anderson Shaffer Group, LLC, for a period of six months. The seller is a holding company that owns Arrow Tru-Line, Inc., a manufacturer of hardware for sectional overhead doors, which is the property's sole current occupant.

Arrow Tru-Line is consolidating its facilities in its home state of Michigan. When it leaves the Green Meadows facility, the property will be repositioned for leasing to multiple tenants.

"We're delighted to acquire a second asset within Green Meadows, which is the premier industrial park on the north side of Columbus, the city's strongest industrial submarket, where the occupancy rate is about 96 percent," says Jonathan P. Garrity, President of Cambridge Hanover, who provides day-to-day management of the Industrial Partners fund.

He adds: "The building was originally designed to accommodate up to three tenants, so we can restore it to that configuration at minimal cost. By doing so, we expect to achieve significantly higher rents per square foot, because demand for smaller spaces is growing and not being adequately met. The latest studies show a continuing decline in availability in this market, with little room for speculative new development."

Below Replacement Cost

The new addition to the Wien & Malkin Industrial Partners portfolio was acquired for all-in costs of approximately $3 million, which is well below replacement cost, says Mr. Garrity. The acquisition was financed with a conservative mortgage at a 65 percent loan-to-value ratio.

The 10-year-old, fully sprinklered building, occupying 4.39 acres, has 28-foot-high clearance, six loading docks with high-truck doors, and two ground-level doors, along with 7,500 square feet of office space and parking for 90 cars.

Green Meadows Industrial Park is located along Columbus Pike, the area's main business thoroughfare, and is near Interstate-71, which connects to I-270, the Columbus beltway, providing convenient access to Port Columbus International Airport and all key Midwest destinations.

"The Industrial Properties fund has been very successful in identifying properties that offer current return and the opportunity to add value and can be acquired below their replacement cost," says Anthony E. Malkin, who gives final approval on the fund's acquisitions on a case-by-case basis.

"We're especially interested in situations such as this, where an owner is eager to dispose of a well-located property in order to focus its resources on other assets."

In addition to Wien & Malkin Industrial Partners' two properties in the Columbus area, the fund has acquired warehouse/distribution facilities in Memphis, Tennessee, Charleston, South Carolina, and the Research Triangle area of Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. Other potential acquisitions in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern states are currently under evaluation.