Industrial park near Richmond airport sells for $142M

An eight-building industrial park near the Richmond International Airport in eastern Henrico County sold for $142 million, according to news releases this week.

Boston-based real estate private equity firm Rockpoint bought Eastport Industrial Park, which has more than 1.06 million square feet, from Equus Capital Partners, a real estate investment fund manager headquartered near Philadelphia. Equus purchased the property for $138.99 million in 2022.

Located 2 miles from the Richmond airport, the 98-acre property has eight warehouse and logistics buildings averaging 25-foot clear heights, according to Cushman & Wakefield.  The buildings range from 71,634 square feet to 174,720 square feet with 18-foot to 28-foot clear heights and 80-foot to 140-foot truck courts, according to Equus. Eastport has 182 loading positions, with 26 potential slots for additional loading positions.

The property sits near the intersection of Charles City Road and East Laburnum Avenue, close to Interstates 64 and 95. At closing, it was 97% occupied, with 19 tenants from varying industries, including logistics, pet care, medical and food and beverage.

The Richmond airport industrial submarket has a 2% vacancy rate and has seen rent growth of more than 120% since 2020, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

“Rockpoint’s investment in Eastport reflects our continued conviction in high-quality, infill light industrial assets in select growth markets,” Fred Borges, senior managing director at Rockpoint, said in a statement.

Rockpoint will manage and operate Eastport with its property services affiliate, Rockhill Management, and its industrial operating platform, Rockpoint Industrial.

“The disposition of the Eastport Industrial Park reflects the successful execution of Equus’ value-add strategy for this industrial investment,” Equus Senior Vice President Michael Brower said in a statement. Brower and Keith Knight, a vice president at Equus, oversaw the transaction for the company.

Cushman & Wakefield’s industrial advisory group mid-Atlantic sales team of Jonathan Carpenter, Graham Savage, Dawes Milchling and James Check, along with Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer’s Eric Robison and Bo McKown, represented Equus in the sale. John Alascio, TJ Sullivan, Chris Meloni and Michael Zelin from Cushman & Wakefield’s equity, debt and structured finance team arranged acquisition financing for Rockpoint.

Rockpoint was founded in 2003, and its predecessor firm was founded in 1994. As of June 30, Rockpoint and the predecessor firm had invested or committed to invest in 512 transactions with a peak capitalization of about $82 billion. The company managed $13 billion in net assets. Since 2020, Rockpoint has made 16 industrial investments spanning approximately 15 million square feet.