Category: News

Nearly $50 million transaction includes assets in Dallas, TX; St. Louis, MO; and Kissimmee, FL

Provender Partners has closed on a 185,569-square-foot cold storage facility in Dallas, TX, the third and final piece of a 469,000-square-foot, tri-temp real estate portfolio acquired from an undisclosed national food service company for nearly $50 million.

The Seller will lease back the three buildings in Dallas, TX; Kissimmee, FL; and St. Louis, MO for the next two years, as it completes construction on three new larger facilities in those markets.

“After demonstrating our ability to execute on the Kissimmee facility earlier this year, the Seller shared their disposition plans and offered us the opportunity acquire the two remaining assets,” said Provender Founder and Chief Executive Officer Neil Johnson. “By structuring the transactions as sale/leasebacks, the Seller now has the runway to phase out of these buildings and into their new facilities, while we receive a steady stream of passive income and make plans to re-tenant.”

The buildings at 5225 Investment Drive, Dallas, TX (189,569 square feet); 3737 N. Broadway, St. Louis, MO (138,282 square feet), and 1700 Avenue B, Kissimmee, FL (145,540 square feet) are strategically located in prime distribution hubs within their respective markets. Each feature an attractive combination of freezer, refrigerated and ambient storage space along with refrigerated docks and clear heights ranging from 30 to 36 feet. All have been well maintained and after a modest capital improvement program they will be extremely desirable to a wide variety of foodservice, grocery and logistics companies, said John Long Jr. Provender Chief Operating Officer.

“While it has been pencils down for most investors, Provender continues to focus on building a multi-billion dollar food-related industrial building portfolio to meet the growing demands being placed on today’s food supply chain,” Long added. “We are confident in our ability to lease up all three buildings quickly and have them ready for occupancy shortly after the buildings are vacated.”

Chris Robinson with Fischer and Scott Delphey with Food Properties Group represented both parties in the portfolio sale.

Provender Partners has signed Farm Cut, LLC, a unit of Boyton Beach, FL global produce distributor South Florida Produce, to a lease to occupy an entire 42,423-square-foot, rail-served refrigerated distribution facility in Lakeland, FL.

Provender acquired the vacant facility at 5300 Great Oak Drive in late October, which marked the firm’s entry into the Florida market. The lease signing comes only months after the food-related building investor completed a renovation of the 1980s’ vintage building which included a refrigeration refit, roof repairs, and interior and exterior upgrades. The 100% temperature-controlled building is located on a 4.14 acre lot, and features 30-foot clear heights, 12 dock-high doors and 6,000 square feet of office space.

“Central Florida is one of the fastest growing regions in the United States, but the food supply chain has not kept up with the state’s in-migration,” said Provender CEO Neil Johnson. “Food service companies, grocers, farmers and logistics companies are finding it difficult to find high quality, strategically located facilities to get their fresh products to market. The Lakeland facility is the first step in our plan to build scale in Florida, as we have in the rest of the country through future development and acquisition.”

Farm Cut’s new distribution facility in Lakeland is located along Florida’s burgeoning 132-mile I-4 Corridor, one of the prime distribution hubs in the state serving a population of nearly five million people within a 50 radius. The I-4 Corridor also is served by two international airports (Tampa and Orlando) and the deep-water port of Tampa Bay providing domestic and global reach.

John Dunphy and Chuck Rosien of JLL represented Provender in the Lakeland lease transaction.

Recap seeds investment program to acquire and develop food-related assets throughout the United States.

Provender Partners (Provender) and StepStone Real Estate (SRE), the real estate arm of private markets investment firm StepStone Group (Nasdaq: STEP) have completed a $158 million secondary and recapitalization of a one-million-square-foot cold storage portfolio with assets in the high-growth industrial markets of Oakland, CA; Las Vegas, NV; Berkeley, IL; Bolingbrook, IL; and Birmingham, AL.

Provender acquired the properties over the last three years in a joint venture with a global investment management firm that recently sold its interests to SRE on a secondary basis according to Provender Founder and Chief Executive Officer Neil Johnson. “In addition to acquiring our former partners’ interest, SRE will contribute additional capital to our investment program to help us build our platform and acquire and develop additional best-in-class cold storage and other types of food-related assets across the United States,” added Provender Chief Operating Officer John Long, Jr.

“Since originally acquiring the assets, we increased the portfolio’s occupancy rate to 100 percent by leasing the assets to high-quality companies critical to the nation’s food supply chain,” said Johnson. “We look forward to continuing to build and manage our portfolio with SRE,” he added.”

Tenants include local and regional wholesale food logistics companies, food service providers, and frozen food packagers with a remaining average lease term of approximately six years.

“Well-located and supply-chain essential cold storage and food-related industrial is one of our high-conviction investment themes,” said John Waters, Partner and Head of Investments at SRE. “We are excited to be partnering with a best-in-class manager like Provender to help us achieve this objective,” he added.

Michael Leggett, Sher Hafeez and Josh Lieberman of JLL advised Provender on the formation of the joint venture. JLL’s Capital Markets Debt Advisory Team of Brian Torp and Peter Thompson sourced the debt financing for the transaction.

Provender Partners has acquired a four-property food production and distribution portfolio totaling 483,000-square square from SpartanNash for $29.9 million.

The portfolio is made up of four temperature-controlled buildings:

• 171,371-square-foot refrigerated food processing and distribution facility in Indianapolis, IN;
• 160,986-square-foot refrigerated food distribution facility in Minot, ND;
• 103,838-square-foot grocery/produce distribution cross dock facility in Newcomerstown, OH; and
• 42,124-square-foot, rail-served frozen and refrigerated distribution facility in Lakeland, FL.

Built between 1990 and 2005, each of the fully fenced secure buildings in the portfolio feature 30’ or more clear heights, ample loading with as many as 51 dock doors, and abundant trailer parking. Provender plans a multi-million capital improvement program across the portfolio that will include a full refrigeration refit, roof repairs / replacements where necessary and interior and exterior upgrades to meet the demands of today’s food companies, according to Provender Vice President Edward McLaughlin.

“These buildings are an important part of the food supply chain in their respective regions,” said McLaughlin. “After completing the necessary improvements, with our relationships, we believe we can quickly stabilize the properties in the portfolio by leasing to food service companies, grocers and logistics companies in need of high-quality, strategically located facilities for regional and/or last mile distribution. We are already seeing proposals on two of the buildings,” he said.

The portfolio became available when SpartanNash, a Michigan-based Fortune 400 company food solutions company acquired several assets from Caito Food Services including its food distribution business. After consolidating operations, the four redundant facilities were put on the market earlier this year.

Chuck Rosien, executive vice president with JLL in the firm’s Chicago office led the team that marketed the portfolio on behalf of SpartanNash.

With the SpartanNash portfolio, Provender, a leading food-related industrial buildings investor has acquired 1.8 million square feet of cold storage and temperature-controlled facilities in 2022. The assets, which are located California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon and South Dakota, are part of the country’s critical food supply chains serving a population of more than 300 million people.

Provender Partners has acquired from Safeway Fresh Foods, a 217,540-square-foot temperature controlled food production and distribution facility in Vineland, NJ for $22.5 million.

Safeway, an agriculture and food manufacturing company, which provides fresh and prepared foods for retailers throughout the Mid-Atlantic states through its fresh food division Sunnyside Farms, will continue to occupy 100 percent of the building for the next five years under the sale/leaseback transaction.

Located at 215 N. Mill, the mid 1990’s vintage building with approximately 64% freezer and cooler space, is Safe Quality Food (SQF), USDA and Organic Certified. The building features 28’ foot clear heights and 23 dock-high doors. Situated on an 18-acre site, the 27% coverage offers ample trailer parking and potential for expansion.

“This is a highly functional, mission critical food production and distribution facility in the supply chain that serves one of the most densely populated regions in the country,” said Provender COO John Long, Jr. “With access to both major regional rail and trucking lines, the asset is well positioned to provide same or next day delivery for retailers serving a population of approximately 57 million who live within a 250 mile radius. The asset perfectly aligns with our business objectives to build a significant food related industrial portfolio in the region.”

Vineland is the second major acquisition for Provender in the Greater Philadelphia metro in the last 12 months. Provender, which has invested in more than 6.5 million square feet of food-related industrial buildings across the country since its founding in 2014, entered the Philadelphia market in September of last year with the acquisition of a 255,000-square-foot building in Delanco, NJ. That building serves as the refrigerated and frozen food distribution facility for national e-commerce food company Misfits Market.

“Understanding their investment strategy and the makeup of this offering, we believed that Provender would be a suitable partner for our client and chose to take the opportunity directly to them,” said Ryan Guittare, who arranged the transaction alongside Newmark Senior Managing Director Kurt Montagano.

The Newmark Capital Markets team has closed on nearly 1 million square feet of cold storage space over the last year+ in the greater Philadelphia marketplace including both deals with Provender.

The cold storage warehouse acquisitions provide a strategic opportunity to support a distribution system that serves over 87 million within a day’s drive.

Provender Partners, a leading food-related industrial buildings investor, has acquired two Class A cold storage warehouses totaling approximately 316,000 square feet in Londonderry, New Hampshire $67 million transaction. Leased by ReallyCold, the facilities are strategically located to serve a population of more than 87 million within an approximately 500-mile radius.

Located less than a mile from Interstate 93, the 191,836-square-foot Class A cold storage warehouse at 219 Rockingham Rd. comprises 147,623 square feet of -100 freezer space, 7,689 square feet of -200 below freezer space, 10,200 square feet of refrigerated dock space and 7,224 square feet of office space. The 14.2-acre facility offers 24,000 pallet positions and includes 10 docks and 30-foot clear heights.

The 124,100-square-foot Class A cold storage warehouse at 6 Rockingham Rd., located only 3 minutes away from the interstate, features more than 90,000 square feet of -100 freezer space, 14,120 square feet of refrigerated dock space, 6,000 square feet of cooler/freezer and 5,342 square feet of office space. Situated on a 12.86-acre site, the 20-year-old facility, which was expanded in 2005, offers 14,000 pallet positions and includes 10 docks and 30-foot clear heights.

“While there is tremendous demand, there is virtually no available freezer space in the Northeast U.S.,” said Provender CEO and founder Neil Johnson. “The 32,000 pallet positions between these two Londonderry cold storage properties made this purchase a prime opportunity to tap into the critical food supply chain in the region that serves more than 87 million people from Washington, D.C., to Montreal and Boston to Pittsburgh, all located within a single day’s truck drive.”

The major food-related industrial buildings purchase comes on the heels of Provender Partners’ approximately $24 million acquisition of a Midwest industrial portfolio in January. The Orange County, Calif.-based investor/operator enjoyed an active 2021, acquiring two million square feet of food-related industrial buildings which increased its total assets acquired since inception to 6.5 million square feet. The firm also expanded its geographic footprint making first investments in Alabama, Iowa, Nevada, New Jersey and Utah.

Kevin Griffiths of Newmark represented Provender in the off-market sale. The seller, a New York-based investment and real estate firm was represented Newmark’s Brian Pinch.

Acquisition provides strategic opportunity to support distribution system critical to the food supply chain.

Provender Partners, a leading food-related industrial buildings investor, has acquired a 469,673-square-foot tri-temp distribution portfolio that serves as the Midwest food and convenience channel supply chain for Core-Mark, in a $23.975 million transaction.

The portfolio comprises a 435,968-square-foot warehouse and distribution center in Carroll IA, and a strategic network of six support facilities 100 percent leased to Core-Mark, one of the nation’s largest wholesale distributors to the convenience retail industry, and a unit of The Performance Food Group. The warehouse and distribution center is located on a 49-acre site at 1751 U.S. Highway 30 East and features 296,968 square feet of ambient warehouse, 95,118 square feet of cooler/freezer and 30,444 square feet of office space. It is central to the six cross-dock distribution buildings ranging in size from 2,500 to 4,000 square feet in Iowa, South Dakota and Minnesota, allowing for 24-hour delivery across Core-Mark’s 12-state Midwest service area.

“Meeting the various food user demand patterns around the country requires regional and diverse networks made up of a variety of different parts that can take years to assemble,” said Provender CEO and founder Neil Johnson. “This was a rare opportunity to acquire a complete distribution system critical to the food supply chain in the region that was 100 percent leased to a national credit tenant like Core-Mark.”

The transaction follows an active year for Provender Partners which acquired two million square feet of food-related industrial buildings in 2021 increasing its total assets acquired since inception to 6.5 million square feet. It is the second significant Midwest acquisition for Provender in the past three months. In late October the firm acquired a 570,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility in Chicago for $30 million. The firm also expanded its geographic footprint making its first investments in Alabama, Iowa, Nevada, New Jersey and Utah.

The portfolio was marketed for sale on behalf of the seller by Dick Powell, vice president of CBRE. Provender was represented by Matt Bear of Bear Real Estate Advisors.

Firm grows Chicago food-related industrial real estate portfolio to nearly one million square feet in 18 months.

Provender Partners continues to expand its Chicagoland food related-industrial building (FRIB) portfolio with the acquisition of a 570,028-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility with 50 acres of excess land in the Chicago MSA for $30 million.

The property is located at 1125 Sycamore Road in the Village of Manteno, 55 miles south of downtown Chicago. Built in 1999, the building is 100% temperature controlled accommodating a wide array of uses. It also features 41-foot clear heights, 84 docks, rail service and 132 trailer stalls. Within a single day’s truck drive of the Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Detroit, Des Moines, Louisville, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis metro area, the cross-dock facility serves as the centralized Midwest distribution center for McKesson’s pharmaceutical supply chain.

The acquisition also includes 50 acres of excess land, which is fully entitled for the development of an additional 620,000 square feet of industrial space. Provender is considering several options for the land including future expansion of the existing building, speculative or a build-to-suit industrial development.

The Provender Midwest Distribution Center is the fourth and largest FRIB asset acquired by Provender Partners in the Chicagoland metro in the past 18 months. After entering the market in May 2020 with the acquisition of a 141,000-square-foot food processing facility in Berkeley, IL, 100 percent leased to Preferred Meals, Inc., Provender’s portfolio now totals 906,000 square feet of food related industrial buildings.

Two of those assets, an 81,000-square-foot meat processing facility in Bolingbrook and a 95,000-square-foot Tri-Temp building in Lake Zurich were vacant at the time of acquisition. After speculative upgrades, Provender leased up both buildings to HelloFresh (Lake Zurich) and a pre-prepared meal manufacturer (Bolingbrook).

“Cold storage is largely a function of population and food manufacturing, and as one of the largest food manufacturing hubs in the country, it is obvious the vital role Illinois/Chicagoland plays in the country’s food supply chain,” said Provender Partners CEO and Founder Neil Johnson. “We will continue to invest in the area’s Cold Chain opportunistically, whether that be in cold storage or food manufacturing facilities.”

Will Mura, Vice President for CBRE’s Industrial & Logistics Services Team in the firm’s St. Louis office marketed the property for sale on behalf of the seller.

U.S. supply chains suffered massive disruption in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Vulnerabilities across different sectors were suddenly highlighted, including the fragility of essential food production, storage and consumption.

As restaurants closed their doors to dine-in customers, demand for bulk ingredients began to fall. The food service companies that supply restaurants cut back on orders from farms, but the production of agricultural goods continued.

Farmers typically provide their products to processors and food service companies in bulk. But the food supply chain’s inability to pivot from bulk packaging to consumer-sized packaging meant that the surplus of products couldn’t easily get to grocery stores or food banks, resulting in vast amounts of food waste.

When the pandemic began to ramp up in March last year, Provender Partners CEO Neil Johnson said he immediately started brainstorming ways in which his company could address growing problems in the food space. The firm is an investor and operator of food-related industrial buildings, with an existing cold storage portfolio of more than 5.5M SF.

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A California investor in food-related industrial buildings is making a big investment in its new property in Birmingham.

Provender Partners is investing $9.1 million in a renovation project at 400 Industrial Drive, Unit 1, after acquiring the property for $20.2 million last month.

Design-build construction company Primus Builders, which is based in Woodstock, Georgia, is the general contractor on the project.

The building includes 230,000 square feet of cooler space and 185,000 square feet of freezer space.

Provender Partners is also looking into developing about 20 acres of vacant land on the site for additional cold storage space, Neil Johnson, founder and CEO of Provender Partners, told the Birmingham Business Journal.

“Since inception, Provender has renovated over twenty buildings across the U.S.,” Johnson said. “400 Industrial Drive presents a unique opportunity to put our experts to work in renovating this sizable building. The end product will be a fully renovated, highly functional building available for occupancy in early 2022.”

Industrial real estate, including cold storage for food, has become a hot commodity with the rise of ecommerce, and the demand has skyrocketed thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Birmingham’s industrial scene saw an unprecedented boom in build-to-suit projects last year with major inventory-related companies signing deals for large facilities in Bessemer and elsewhere.

From the Birmingham Business Journal