HANOVER, MD-A 128,800-square foot multitenant industrial facility here has traded for $7.8 million. CBRE brokered the transaction, pointing to it as an example of the region’s return to normal activity.

The property, 7453 Candlewood Rd., is fully-leased, and situated in the heart of the Baltimore-Washington, DC corridor. A subsidiary of Denver-based Industrial Income Trust purchased the building from an affiliate of Great Point Investors LLC, which is based in Boston. CBRE’s Bo Cashman and Jonathan Beard represented the seller. 

Cashman said in a prepared statement that the purchase provides the buyer with a stabilized asset in a region characterized by a finite amount of available land. “In this first quarter of 2012, industrial investment sales in the Baltimore-Washington Corridor are on pace to reach the normalized transaction volume of 2006 and 2007,“ he added.

In a separate report, CBRE noted steady leasing activity and stabilization rates in the Baltimore industrial market for Q1 2012. The quarter’s activity, it said, which saw nearly 900,000-square feet of positive net absorption, offered cautious optimism for a market where the fundamentals have been flat. Vacancy rates dropped to 10.9% from 11.5% at the end of 2011.

“We continue to see more large retail and manufacturing warehouse users in the market than in previous years,” said Chip Olsen, senior managing director of CBRE’s Baltimore office, in a prepared statement. “But with continued uncertainty, developers are holding off on speculative construction, constraining the supply of large blocks of vacant space."