Sears Holdings Corp. expects no change in operations after selling a North Jacksonville warehouse April 5 to LBA Realty of Irvine, California.
“We will continue to operate the distribution center and lease it from LBA. We expect that this transaction will have no impact on our current day-to-day operations,” said Sears spokesman Howard Riefs on Friday.
Innovel Solutions Inc., part of Sears Holdings Corp., sold the almost 750,000-square-foot warehouse on about 59 acres to 1 Imeson Park Blvd LLC, part of LBA.
The property sale was recorded at $32.25 million. A $22.9 million mortgage issued in connection with the transaction shows that it secures three properties – 1 Imeson Blvd. and two Sears properties in Melrose Park, Illinois, and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Sears Holdings reported in February 2017 it would market and sell at least $1 billion of real estate properties.
“As a result of these efforts, our distribution center in Jacksonville was sold to LBA as part of the sale/leaseback agreement,” said Riefs, director of corporate communications with Sears Holdings in Chicago.
Duval County Clerk of Courts records show that Parlex 2A Finco LLC financed the deal at $22.9 million. The lender is a subsidiary of Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc.
The Duval County Property Appraiser assesses the 1 Imeson Park Blvd. property at $17.4 million, according to 2018 in progress amount posted online. The mega warehouse was built in 1990.
That property is next to the more than 1.6 million-square-foot former Sears warehouse at the same address, which is owned by GIV Imeson LLC and leased to several tenants. That large warehouse, called One Imeson, is at 1 Imeson Park Blvd., No. 100.
“It’s not our building,” said One Imeson owner Jason Isaacson of the warehouse sold to LBA Realty.
Sears developed that office-warehouse in 1974 as a catalog sales distribution center, but sold it to investors in 1994.
LBA has not returned emails for comment.
According to lbarealty.com, LBA owns and operates more than 26 million square feet of industrial properties throughout the western United States.
“Our facilities provide a unique variety of industrial space for our customers both large and small. Our locations range from major port and airport adjacent locations including Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, San Diego and Seattle to more regional inland locations such as Dallas, Denver, Phoenix and Las Vegas,” the site says.
LBA Realty also owns and operates more than 10 million square feet of office space in western states.