Four-building Orlando property sold in largest multi-parcel deal in city's history

A real-estate investor has acquired nearly 1 million square feet of industrial property in Orlando in what has been called the largest sale, based on square footage, of a multi-tenant industrial parcel in the city's history.

Colony NorthStar Inc., which has offices in New York and Los Angeles, acquired the assets for $67.1 million through its Dallas-based industrial fund, Colony Industrial, according to Cushman and Wakefield, the New York-based real estate giant that negotiated the sale on behalf of an unidentified state pension fund. The property is comprised of four buildings totaling 946,379 square feet. It is located in the southwest section of Orlando.

With the acquisition, Colony, which bought up about 1 million of industrial property in Orlando last year, now has 2 million square feet of warehouse and DC space under management there.

The buildings, which were fully occupied at the time of sale, list as a tenant FedEx SmartPost, an operation of Memphis-based FedEx Corp. that tenders parcels to the U.S. Postal Service for last-mile delivery, mostly to residences. Other tenants include San Francisco-based McKesson Corp., the pharmaceutical distribution and health information technology giant; Orlando-based mattress retailer Mattress One; and San Diego-based pet-supply company Petco Animal Supplies Inc.

The buildings are located at the confluence of Interstate 4, which runs north to south in a diagonal line between Tampa and Daytona Beach; Florida's Turnpike, a north-south road that runs between U.S. 1 in Florida City south of Miami through 11 Florida counties to the north, where it terminates near Interstate 75; and State Route 528, also known as the "Beachline Expressway."

"Orlando remains a target market for investors due to its access to the Southeast," said Mike Davis, executive managing director of Cushman and Wakefield's capital markets team. "At a time when e-commerce and shipping have come to the forefront of our economy, this market is viewed as a premier location for distribution throughout the region."