RICHMOND-The city of Richmond has always had a strong industrial focus thanks to Norfolk's proximity. But recent investments by Amazon in its distribution facilities has upped the game considerably, according to Owen Rouse, Jr., senior vice president, Capital Markets for Manekin, LLC. "Richmond is on the logistics map in a way that it wasn't before," he tells GlobeSt.com.

For that reason the company has made an opportunistic acquisition of a three-building 617,232-square foot industrial portfolio for $19.68 million from an undisclosed institutional seller. In addition, it is actively seeking further transactions in Richmond's warehouse and distribution market. "We would like to have between 900,000 square feet and one-million square feet in Richmond, which means we must grow by 50% over the next five, six quarters," Rouse says. He adds that there are a couple of deals Manekin is looking at right now.

Amazon has made two 1.1-million-square foot distribution acquisitions in the area, both of which are running. With those facilities now open, vendors that service Amazon are looking for space, Rouse says, as are companies that just want to follow Amazon's lead on the assumption that it knows what it is doing.

Indeed the rush is on already. According to the Jones Lang LaSalle third quarter 2013 industrial report for the Richmond area, leasing volume exceeded 650,000 square feet of space, which represented a nearly 50 percent increase from the previous quarter.

Supply is expanding in response: Lumber Liquidators and Republic National Distributing acquired land parcels that they intend to develop into new distribution centers representing approximately 1.2 million square feet of space.

The mortgage financing for the portfolio trade was arranged by Dan Freedman and Chris Beck of the Chicago office of Draper and Kramer. The financing was provided by the American National Life Insurance Co. of Texas.

The three buildings are located at 4700-4900 Eubank Ave, a 118,000 square foot-structure; 5305-5390 South Laburnum Ave., which is 54,894 square feet and 4800-4890 Eubank Ave., the largest building in the group at 444,738 square feet. The buildings have 18-27' clear span ceilings, and are equipped with 83 rear loading docks and 9 drive-in docks. They are situated within the Interport Business Center. The portfolio is approximately 60% leased.