1M-SF Winn-Dixie Complex Trades for $38M

The Winn Dixie facility sits on 175.65 acres at 833 Shotwell Rd., near Highway 70, about 20 miles southeast of Raleigh. It was built for Winn-Dixie in 1997 and abandoned seven years later when the Jacksonville, FL-based grocer went bankrupt. Betting that demand for distribution space will pick up, Fulcra Enterprises Inc. of Charlotte acquired the six-building complex from Clayton/PTTA LLC.

The campus includes a 30,520-sf office building and five manufacturing buildings, including a 706,405-sf grocery facility, a 343,141-sf perishable facility, a 53,627-sf salvage, dock and reclaim facility, a 24,967-sf garage and a 4,284-sf gatehouse. Building amenities include 178 dock-high and drive-in doors, 26-to-29-foot ceiling heights and an interior 400-foot Norfolk Southern rail spur.

The acquisition is a show of confidence that the region's industrial property market will continue to improve, says CBRE Raleigh's managing director Butch Miller in a prepared statement. Miller, who represented the seller along with fellow CBRE brokers Ben Kilgore and Michael Hobson, could not be reached Thursday for additional comment.

Jim Allaire, a Colliers Pinkard broker in Raleigh who with Chris Norvell represented Fulcra in the transaction, tells GlobeSt.com that the attractiveness of the complex is its young age and its central location between New York and Florida and its proximity to Interstates 40 and 95. Several tenants have expressed interest, he says.

Winn-Dixie moved to the site in 1997. Financial troubles forced the company to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2005. It shuttered the Clayton facility and Wachovia, as special servicer, put the complex up for sale that summer. The company, which employed 400 people at the plant, had about 19 years left on its lease at the time. Smithfield Foods, a meat processor, currently leases the 343,000-sf refrigerated warehouse on a long-term lease.