DETROIT—These are good days for investors in Detroit-area industrial real estate. The revival of the auto industry has many companies, especially auto parts suppliers, flocking to the region and filling up industrial property. That's been the experience of Schostak Brothers & Co., which in December 2015 bought the 154,377-square-foot building at 13301 Stephens Rd. in suburban Warren. Anji Logistics USA Inc., which provides supply chain services for the automotive industry, just signed a long-term lease to occupy 100% of the property. It will serve as the firm's North American headquarters.

Mike Davidson, Chris Dowell and Dan Labes, senior managing directors of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, represented ownership in this transaction.

“The automotive industry has been doing quite well for the last five or six years, and as a result, the industrial real estate vacancy rate in metro Detroit has dropped down to sub-3%,” Warren Strietzel, the chief operating officer of Schostak, tells GlobeSt.com. “We have been acquiring vacant or value-add type industrial buildings, spending the money to refurbish them for today's user and leasing them to tier one automotive suppliers across MI.”

The company, he says, also owns a 407,500-square-foot warehouse in Flint, MI, and a 136,000-square-foot warehouse in Redford Twp., MI, leased to Roush Industries, a Livonia, MI-based automotive engineering and manufacturing firm.

“Ownership purchased 13301 Stephens Rd. as an investment with the goal of finding a long-term, quality tenant to lease the entire building,” adds Davidson. NGKF provided a short-term solution, leasing 75,000 square feet of the property in July 2016 to a smaller local warehouse firm with the option to terminate the lease if a tenant was found to lease the entire building. “We are thrilled to have used our resources and creativity to accomplish the ultimate goal for our client.”

13301 Stephens Rd. features 12,000 square feet of office space, 20 docks and 23' clearance. Anji Logistics, a sister company of Anji-CEVA Automotive Logistics Co., the largest third-party logistics provider in China, will begin occupying the building this month.

Mike Davidson, Chris Dowell and Dan Labes, senior managing directors of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, represented ownership in this transaction.

Instant Insights /

Detroit Value-Add Properties Filling Up

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