The eight-building Eastport industrial Park spans 86 acres near Laburnum Avenue and Charles City Road. (Image courtesy Rockpoint)
In what appears to be the biggest local industrial deal so far this year, a warehouse complex in eastern Henrico has changed hands in a nine-figure transaction that’s just $3 million more than the property sold for three years ago.
Eastport Industrial Park, an eight-building, 86-acre complex near Richmond International Airport, sold for $142 million in a deal that was announced this week.
The transaction amount was announced Tuesday by Cushman & Wakefield, which arranged the sale and the acquisition financing. The transaction and closing date were not yet reflected on Henrico’s online property records.
The buyer is Rockpoint, a Boston-based private equity firm that appears to be making its entry into the Richmond market with the acquisition.
The seller was Equus Capital Partners, a privately held REIT based near Philadelphia that purchased Eastport in early 2023 for $139 million, as part of a larger industrial portfolio deal that likewise brought Equus into the local market.
Totaling just over 1 million square feet, the eight buildings were 97% occupied with 19 tenants at Rockpoint’s closing. Tenants include ABB Power Protection, HD Supply, and dog treats company TDBBS, which occupies the most space at Eastport.
Located near the intersection of Laburnum Avenue and Charles City Road, the industrial park was primarily built in the late 1990s, per Henrico records. The warehouse and logistics buildings range in size from 71,600 to 174,700 square feet and average 25-foot clearance heights with about 200 loading positions.
The warehouse and logistics buildings total over 1 million square feet and include about 200 loading docks. (Image courtesy Equus)
Cushman & Wakefield worked both sides of the deal, with Equus represented by a Baltimore-based team that included local affiliate Thalhimer’s Bo McKown and president Eric Robison. A New York-based Cushman team arranged acquisition financing through a global alternative investment firm for Rockpoint.
The brokerage’s announcement said marketing efforts produced more than 15 offers for the Eastport portfolio and yielded over a dozen financing bids, including multiple options for a larger aggregation credit facility. The announcement described the interest as “a testament to the quality of the assets and the growing interest from institutional investors in the Richmond marketplace.”
The announcement said Richmond “remains one of the nation’s most resilient industrial markets, supported by limited supply, robust port connectivity, and sustained tenant demand.” It said the airport submarket where Eastport is located maintains a 2% vacancy rate and has experienced over 120% rent growth since 2020.
Attempts to reach Rockpoint and Equus representatives were unsuccessful Tuesday afternoon.
Rockpoint will manage and operate the portfolio via its Rockhill Management property services affiliate and Rockpoint Industrial, its industrial operating platform.
Rockpoint has made 16 industrial investments since 2020, representing about 15 million square feet, according to its announcement that was released Monday.
The release quotes Rockpoint Industrial head Ben Harris, who said Richmond “continues to stand out nationally with compelling long-term fundamentals” and that the company looks forward “to leveraging our industrial operating expertise to drive value for tenants and investors at Eastport Industrial Park.”
The Eastport sale comes just over a month after another nine-figure deal for a comparably sized, but newer, property near Ashland.
The 3-year-old SanMar Richmond warehouse building on Hickory Hill Road sold in September for $128 million to Lake Washington Partners, a Seattle-based firm with family ties to SanMar, which filled the building in 2023.
