July 14, 2021

Olivia Pulsinelli | Houston Business Journal

Houston-based Triten Real Estate Partners has sold three of its industrial properties near the Port of Houston to affiliates of New York-based Lexington Realty Trust (NYSE: LXP), commercial real estate firm JLL announced June 14.

The 44.6-acre portfolio consists of Bayport North Logistics Center I at 9701 New Decade in Pasadena, Bayport North Logistics Center II at 4100 Malone in Pasadena, and Underwood Port Logistics Center at 4660 Underwood in Deer Park. The portfolio was completed in 2019.

Underwood Port Logistics Center spans 404,160 square feet, Bayport North Logistics Center I is 102,863 square feet, and Bayport North Logistics Center II is 233,190 square feet.

A local JLL Industrial Capital Markets team represented Triten in the sale. The team was led by Trent Agnew and Rusty Tamlyn, both senior managing directors, as well as Director Charles Strauss and Analyst Katherine Miller.

“This portfolio was well received by investors, as it allowed them to gain scale in a submarket within Houston that continues to see tremendous tenant demand and has true barriers to new supply with a lack of available land south of the Ship Channel,” said Agnew. “We received nearly 20 offers from a wide variety of capital sources, and, ultimately affiliates of Lexington Realty Trust emerged as the buyer.”

The properties also appear to be popular with tenants, as the three single-tenant buildings are fully leased. In November, CBRE announced that two new tenants leased over half a million square feet in the properties. A undisclosed global e-commerce provider leased Underwood Port Logistics Center, while La Porte-based Frederick Trucking leased Bayport North Logistics Center I. The Woodlands-based A&R Logistics Inc. occupies Bayport North Logistics Center II.

Joseph Smith, Patrick Rollins, Jason Dillee and Andrew Jewett of CBRE represented Triten in the deals. Dedrik Pharis with CBRE’s office in California's Inland Empire region represented the undisclosed tenant at the Underwood Port Logistics Center, while Chris Haro with NAI Partners represented Frederick Trucking.

“We were pleased to be able to accommodate tenant demand propelled by Houston’s population boom and recent supply chain disruption by delivering high-quality product within immediate proximity to Houston’s container ports,” Will Hedges, managing partner at Triten, said June 14. “The entire team did an exceptional job navigating the market from the design and construction teams to our leasing team and JLL’s execution.”

Earlier this year, Triten closed a $150 million fund the company intends to use for investments in industrial service facilities across the country. Industrial service facilities are properties that support the industrial supply chain by offering strategic locations with a large outdoor storage component. Tenants often use these sites to store trucks, trailers, equipment, building materials and intermodal containers close to large urban centers and critical logistics infrastructure such as ports, major highway intersections, airports and intermodal railyards.

“The secular growth of e-commerce demand from consumers has led to explosive growth for distribution centers and warehouses, which has led to supply chain constraints for companies as they rapidly adapt to the increased throughput,” Triten founder Scott Arnoldy said at the time. “We view (industrial service facility) assets as mission-critical to the speed and efficiency of the global supply chain, and the pandemic has only further underlined the critical role these ISF assets serve.”

In late 2020, Triten also acquired the 428,629-square-foot office building at 1111 Fannin St. Despite the state of Houston's office market amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Arnoldy told the Houston Business Journal at the time that it was a deal too good to pass up.

Elsewhere in Houston, Triten is known for mixed-use projects in the Heights and the East Downtown District.