Crow Holdings Industrial Completes $164M Sale in Franklin Township

On Jun 17, 2020

Crow Holdings Industrial (CHI) has sold 50 Veronica Avenue — a 925,000-square-foot, fully occupied warehouse in Franklin Township — to BentallGreenOak, on behalf of an institutional investor, for $164 million. The newly built property was developed in partnership with The Carlyle Group and is fully leased to LG Electronics USA, which commenced its seven-year tenancy in April 2020.

Cushman & Wakefield’s East Rutherford-based capital markets team of Gary Gabriel, vice chairman, Andrew Merin, executive vice chairman, and Kyle Schmidt, managing director, represented CHI in the transaction.

“With strong pricing, this transaction evidences that best-in-market industrial real estate remains liquid, despite the economic and health stories in the press,” said Gabriel.

Clark Machemer, senior managing director of CHI’s Northeast region, stated: “While the pandemic has brought most investment activity to a standstill, there is still tremendous demand for state-of the-art logistics properties. Further, having LG in place as a long-term tenant made this a particularly desirable asset. We’re thrilled with the result of our 50 Veronica Avenue development, which, as our first project in the Northeast, serves as a prototype of a successful CHI development. With collaboration from the municipality and our key partners on this project, we were able to acquire, build and lease the property in less than 18 months, leveraging our extensive market knowledge and an expedited construction timeline to bring much-needed industrial space to Central New Jersey.”

Machemer cited Cushman & Wakefield’s persistence and excellent execution as critical to the deal’s success.

“It’s difficult to complete any transaction given the current situation, but the Cushman team did an excellent job of bypassing obstacles and bringing us to closing. Their skill at delivering the information and important attributes of the deal made the process very smooth from both the buyer’s and seller’s perspectives.”

After CHI began its Northeast operations with the hire of Machemer in 2018, CHI and an investment fund advised by The Carlyle Group acquired the site from 2020 Acquisitions in early 2019 and began construction several months later. The CHI Northeast team, which is actively looking to expand its local portfolio, currently features an impressive 5-million-square-foot development pipeline of properties in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Designed to appeal to the modern industrial worker, 50 Veronica Ave was constructed with a range of features including large translucent windows that allow natural light and LED lights that create an open and bright working environment. The Class-A property features 40-foot clear heights and includes 170 trailer parking spots, 159 dock positions, four drive-in ramps and doors, and 394 car spaces. Located near mass transit, the New Jersey Turnpike and I-287, the property provides convenient access to labor and truck traffic alike.

Carlyle’s equity for its investment in the Franklin Township development came from the Carlyle Realty Partners VIII fund.

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