More than $88 million in two property sales closed last week in Cecil Commerce Center, both because the large structures had single Class A tenants.
SunCap Jacksonville LLC sold the FedEx Ground Package System Inc. property at 13509 Waterworks St. to Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corp. of Freehold, N.J., for $30.65 million.
The sale of the 297,579-square-foot center closed Thursday and was recorded Friday with the Duval County Clerk of Court.
Earlier in the week, Hillwood Investment Properties sold the GE Oil & Gas plant property at 12970 Normandy Blvd. in Cecil Commerce Center for $57.6 million. Realty Income Corp. of San Diego bought the 40-acre property and 510,000-square-foot building.
That sale closed Wednesday and was recorded Thursday.
The FedEx building sold for about $103 a square foot and the GE Oil & Gas manufacturing plant sold for about $113 a square foot.
Both buyers focus on high-quality tenants. FedEx is expected to start operations this year and GE Oil & Gas occupies its building and is ramping up for production of control valves and regulators.
Monmouth bought the FedEx property through MREIC Jacksonville Fla LLC, which also took out a $20 million mortgage from American United Life Insurance Co. The deed shows SunCap sold 46 acres to Monmouth.
SunCap Property Group of Charlotte, N.C., developed the FedEx center. Monmouth said in a news release the property is net-leased for 15 years to FedEx Ground Package System.
The three-building sorting facility will replace a smaller one at 2480 Lane Ave. N.
Michael Landy, Monmouth president and CEO, said the Class A build-to-suit center was near Interstates 95 and 10.
He also said Jacksonville’s port ranks among the nation’s top 20 ports.
“It is widely anticipated that as the expanded Panama Canal comes online, the Jacksonville economy will benefit,” he said in the release.
Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corp. was founded in 1968. It is a public equity REIT and specializes in net-leased industrial properties, subject to long-term leases, primarily to investment grade tenants.
Its property portfolio consists of 88 properties in 28 states, containing 12.7 million rentable square feet. In addition, the company owns a portfolio of REIT securities.
SunCap had purchased the site, about 46 acres, in October 2013 from Hillwood Investment Properties, Cecil Commerce Center’s master developer, for $3.62 million. Hillwood had purchased it from the city within a few days prior for $407,349.
Hillwood sold the property to SunCap Jacksonville LLC through New World Avenue Bldg. 1 LLC.
Branch Banking and Trust Co. of North Carolina issued an almost $21.5 million construction mortgage and security agreement to SunCap Jacksonville to develop the FedEx Ground Package System center.
Meanwhile, Realty Income Corp., The Monthly Dividend Co., bought the GE Oil & Gas property. Its realtyincome.com website says it buys commercial real estate for cash leased to tenants that have a good business and operating track record.
Realty Income’s spokesman did not return several telephone calls. The company reported it completed $1.4 billion in acquisitions during 2014, buying 506 properties.
Hillwood did not comment on the deal or the lease terms with GE Oil & Gas, although the city, which issued incentives for the deal, referred to real estate construction, improvements and equipment expenditures for the next 15 years.
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