Dallas-based Hillwood Development will sell its distribution center portfolio to Global Logistics Properties for $1.1 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
GLP is a large industrial property company — owned in part by Singapore's sovereign-wealth fund — that greatly expanded its reach across the U.S. in the last two years as the rise in online shopping has made warehouses a valuable commodity.
Through the deal, GLP will acquire 15 million square feet of warehouse space in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Dallas, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Chicago. Current tenants of the distribution centers include Amazon, Starbucks, NFL and Williams-Sonoma, although GLP also serves clients in the medical device and pharmaceutical industry.
Acquisition of about two-thirds of the property will be completed in December, with the remaining warehouses to close in the following 18 to 24 months. Upon completion of the transaction, GLP will be the second largest owner of warehouses in the U.S. with 200 million square feet of property. San Francisco-based Prologis comes in at No. 1 with 325 million square feet of warehouse property.
"There was a time when warehousing and distribution was just another part of the supply chain," said Charles Sullivan, GLP's COO. "Logistics … has moved up in its importance in corporate strategy. The customer is more a part of the distribution than they were 10 or 15 years ago."
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