FIFE, WA-A 968,000-sf warehouse and distribution center here has changed hands for $63 million. The New York-based pension fund Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF) acquired the four-building complex from Regal Logistics, a locally based logistics company that has leased back the space.

The transaction was brokered by Todd Clarke with Seattle-based GVA Kidder Mathews, which also has the ongoing property management assignment. Clarke is familiar with the property, having sold the raw land to Opus, which developed the land for Regal over the past couple of years.

Clarke tells GlobeSt.com that the entity that acquired the property from Opus and sold it to TIAA-CREF is Rangar LLC, Regal's real estate arm. Regal then leased back the space on a long-term basis from TIAA-CREF, he says.

Regal retains ownership of other properties in Fife and elsewhere in Pierce County. The Regal Logistics Center attracted substantial interest from institutional investors. Clarke says that is in large part due to its proximity to Port of Tacoma.