"We thought it was very well priced and we thought we couldmanage it better than the previous owner," Tom Burton, ABR's CIO,tells GlobeSt.com. "We've been buying industrial assets around theMidwest. It's an attractive product type, so you don't see itpriced like this very often."

ABR Chesapeake Fund III, a value-add real estate investment fundsponsored by ABR, provided an equity commitment of $2.9 million tothe venture. The ABR/Sydney partnership has already purchasedindustrial parks in Indianapolis and Des Moines, IA. With leveragearound 65%, ABR and Sydney expect the portfolio's investmentcapacity to be about $70 million.

Asking lease rates in the single-story building, constructed in1990, range from $5.50 to $8 per foot, triple net, depending on theamount of office finish the space contains. The building now haseight tenants, the largest of which is Intertech, a consumerproducts tester which occupies about a third of the building.Burton says he expects occupancy will increase with more attentivemanagement. The previous owner, he says, was an individual whomanaged the property as a side job.