GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: 259,100-SF Sale/Leaseback Cut

Cobalt Capital and equity partner, USAA Real Estate Co. of San Antonio, found the deal and sealed the off-market trade through a longtime business relationship with the CB Richard Ellis Inc. team steering the transaction for the Texas Wholesale Building Materials Inc. The 27-year-old headquarters and distribution center at 2115 Valley View Lane sits on 16.3 acres in the Valwood Industrial Park and is assessed at $3.8 million by the Dallas Central Appraisal District.

Neither the buyer nor the seller's CBRE brokers, Larry Leon, vice president, and Judd Clements, associate, would discuss the final price for the behind-the-scenes sale. A vintage vacant building in the Valwood park, though, typically sells for $25 per sf to the low $30 per sf.

Lewis D. Friedland, Cobalt's managing partner, tells GlobeSt.com that the class B building was acquired by assuming a loan held by Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada. As for the selling price or the loan amount, all that he will says is "we were able to reach an agreeable price with the seller...We hit it off with the building owner and we decided to make a deal."

Texas Wholesale Building Materials acquired the structure in June 2001 to service retail lumberyards, framing yards, national builders and millwork door shops in Texas and Oklahoma. Friedland, who handled the buy side's bargaining, says there are 13 years left on the triple net lease.

Cobalt, a private equity firm headquartered in Irving, TX that teamed with USAA about two years ago, is a buyer of light industrial product with a portfolio of properties in Southern New Jersey, Philadelphia, Houston and now Dallas. Friedland says he's not holding any other North Texas contracts, but definitely is scouting the terrain for more product to buy in its target market, multi- or single-tenant buildings under 250,000 sf.