[Originally published by Richmond Biz Sense]
After completing a round of upgrades to a group of industrial buildings it picked up in a joint venture three years ago, local real estate company Lingerfelt has unloaded the properties to a national buyer it’s transacted with before.
Lingerfelt and Partners Group, a global investment firm, recently closed on a $175 million sale of their WalthallNorthlake portfolio, consisting of Walthall Distribution Center, a three-building complex on Ruffin Mill Road near Chester, and Northlake Distribution Center, a warehouse on North Lakeridge Parkway south of Ashland.
The four buildings total 1.16 million square feet of space, bringing the sale price to nearly $151 per square foot.
The firms announced the deal April 15, about a week before the three Walthall building sales were recorded with Chesterfield County on April 24. The Northlake sale was not reflected in online records for Hanover County as of Monday.
LLCs used in the Chesterfield transactions list the corporate office address of LBA Logistics, a California-based company that has previously done business with Lingerfelt. Last year, LBA paid $35 million for Port 801, a 240,000-square-foot distribution warehouse that Lingerfelt developed at 801 Port Walthall Drive, just east of Walthall Distribution Center.
LBA also owns two other Richmond-area properties: a cluster of warehouses totaling 1.9 million square feet in the 4000 block of Carolina Avenue, beside Richmond Raceway; and the 344,000-square-foot Woodlands Logistics Center on Eastpark Court near Richmond International Airport.
LBA did not respond to questions from BizSense in time for this report.
The sale comes three years after Lingerfelt and Partners Group purchased the four buildings in 2023 for $105.6 million. Since then, the firms invested $9 million in capital improvements, including new roofs, improved lighting, new paint and cosmetic enhancements, and asphalt repairs and improvements to parking areas.
Switzerland-based Partners Group was the majority investor in the joint venture, its fifth with Henrico-based Lingerfelt.
The Walthall properties total 868,000 square feet and are located at 1900-1934, 1936-1962 and 1964-1984 Ruffin Mill Road. Northlake is 293,000 square feet and located at 11800-11900 N. Lakeridge Parkway.
The buildings were fully leased at the time of the sale, though with some movement among tenants since the 2023 purchase that involved the leasing or re-up of 875,000 square feet across the buildings. Rents were increased along with the upgrades, Lingerfelt said.
Tenants at Walthall include Metagenics, data manager Iron Mountain and Vital Records Control. Northlake tenants include construction supplier Nefco and Lansing Building Products.
The Walthall buildings were purchased in separate transactions totaling $130 million. That would put the Northlake purchase price, which has yet to be recorded, at $45 million.
Chesterfield assessed the three Walthall properties at $52.8 million. The Northlake property is assessed by Hanover at $20.5 million.
Rob Valentine, managing director of investments at Lingerfelt, said in the firms’ announcement that the sale represented a successful execution of their business plan for the properties.
“Through a targeted capital improvement program and an aggressive leasing strategy, we were able to materially enhance the quality and performance of the portfolio while capitalizing on strong tenant demand in two of Richmond’s most established industrial submarkets,” Valentine said in the announcement.
JLL’s Industrial Capital Markets team marketed the portfolio and represented Lingerfelt and Partners Group in the transaction. Matt Anderson and Harrison McVey with Range Commercial Partners handled leasing and property management.
The portfolio sale comes as Lingerfelt is planning a collaboration with residential developer Middleburg Communities on Silas at West Hundred, a 390-unit apartment complex in the works in Chester.