STAG Makes Two Alabama Acquisitions

BOSTON-Locally based STAG Capital Partners has entered the Alabama market with the $11-million acquisition of two fully-leased warehouses totaling 429,568 sf. Brad Sweeney, vice president of acquisitions, tells GlobeSt.com the properties in Huntsville and Phenix City, AL fit the firm's acquisition criteria for fully leased buildings with long-term tenants.

In the larger of the acquisitions, STAG paid $7.4 million for a 312,000-sf facility at 1000 James Record Rd. in Huntsville. The site is used as a warehouse and distribution facility by Cinram International, which manufactures pre-recorded DVDs, CDs, and video and audio cassettes. The property was sold by Graham & Co., a Birmingham, AL-based full-service real estate firm which also handled the sale through internal brokers Jack Key and Jeff Wilke.

STAG also acquired a 117,568-sf warehouse and production facility at 16 Downing Dr. in Phenix City for $3.75 million in a deal with Ashworth Inc. The firm's subsidiary, embroidery manufacturing firm Gekko Brands LLC, holds a short-term lease on the property. That building, which sits on more than 26 acres of land, was handled for the owner by Doug Jefcoat of WC Bradley Co. of Columbus, GA. Both tenants, which have occupied their respective properties since 1999, hold leases with less than five years remaining on their term, Sweeney says.

The acquisitions were the first in Alabama for STAG, which has more than nine million sf of industrial holdings in at least 37 states. Sweeney says competition for both assets was stiff but STAG made a play on the properties because of their location and strong, credit-worthy tenants.

"We've been on a pretty aggressive acquisition pace through the last year and we expect that to continue through 2006," Sweeney says. He notes that the firm has 10 to12 buildings under contract at any one time and will probably close on over $400 million in acquisitions this year.