Cabot Sells Industrial Portfolio to AXA for $875M
The portfolio was part of Cabot’s Industrial Core Fund and totaled 8 million square feet of high-quality midsize logistics facilities.
Another day, another industrial portfolio that has traded.
Cabot Properties has sold its Cabot Industrial Core Fund in an $875 million transaction to AXA Investment Managers—Real Assets. Launched in 2015, the fund is a 27-property, 8 million-square-foot portfolio of midsized logistics facilities.
Cabot acquired the properties over 20 transactions. They are located in core US markets including Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, South Florida, Atlanta and New Jersey. All of the buildings are class-A quality with 32-foot clear heights and an average building size of 300,000 square feet. All of the properties target logistics and ecommerce companies that need to be near major population centers.
The Cabot transaction is part of an onslaught of industrial transactions to close at the end of the year. Last week, global investment firm KKR acquired a 9.7 million-square-foot industrial portfolio for $835 million. The transaction grew the firm’s portfolio to 30 million square feet in industrial assets, part of a strategy to aggressively grow its industrial portfolio.
Earlier in December, KKR also acquired two industrial distribution properties in Texas totaling approximately 1.8 million square feet for $171 million. KKR also acquired a four-property portfolio in November totaling 1.6 million square feet for $136 million.
In early December, Rexford Industrial Realty announced it had acquired an 18-asset industrial property portfolio for $154.6 million. The off-market transaction was funded with cash on hand. Colony Capital sold the Colony Bulk Industrial Portfolio for $400 million to an undisclosed buyer and Blackstone acquired 13 properties from Iron Mountain in a $358 million sale-leaseback transaction, also earlier this month.
Many of these companies are taking advantage of the surge in industrial activity during the pandemic, and betting on the future resilience of the asset class. However, despite the slew of major industrial sales at the end of the year, industrial investment activity is down over 2019. A report from Colliers International noted that industrial transaction volume is down 25% for the year with a total of $59 billion in investment sales volume. Warehouse and distribution deals accounted for 75% of the investment activity.