NEW KINGSTOWN, PA-West Conshohocken-based Seagis Property Group LP has acquired the 147,000-sf industrial property at 36 E. Main St. here from Exel Inc. for $4.5 million, or about $30.61 per sf, and leases it back to the London-based global logistics provider. This is Seagis' first acquisition in the Harrisburg industrial corridor.

Terms of the Exel lease are undisclosed. The average asking rental rate for industrial properties in Cumberland County is $3.89 per sf, according to a first-quarter 2005 report from the Harrisburg office of CB Richard Ellis. The report states that "the investment sales segment of the market is operating at full force," and singles out Cumberland County as a particularly targeted area "in anticipation of full recovery."

The property is within a mile of I 81, and the building has rail service, 24-foot clear ceiling heights and 20 tailgate doors. "It is well suited to accommodate the future needs of a modern warehouse space user," says John Begier, a Seagis principal.

Begier and Charles Lee, former executives of Keystone Property Trust, prior to its acquisition by ProLogis, formed Seagis this March, backed by a $250-million investment from Chicago-based Principal Enterprise Capital. At the time, Lee told GlobeSt.com Seagis would focus primarily on New Jersey and South Florida and cited the I 81 corridor near Harrisburg as "an area of interest."

Its first acquisition was in Miami's North Dade submarket. In addition to the Exel property, it paid $10.9 million for a fully leased 163,000-sf facility in Teterboro, NJ.