Forney Logistics Crossing, a large, newly built industrial property in the Kaufman County city, has changed hands.
The 904,495-square-foot, cross-dock warehouse and distribution property in the East Dallas submarket was 100% leased at the time of sale to Knight-Swift, one of the largest publicly traded trucking companies in the country.
Pennsylvania-based EQT Exeter, a unit of global investor EQT AB Group, bought the property. The sellers were Dallas-based Stillwater Capital and Grandview Partners.
Commercial real estate firm Newmark arranged the sale on behalf of Stillwater and Grandview.
Delivered in January 2023, the property features new, state-of-the-art construction and Class A design, with modern amenities including a 40-foot clear height, cross-dock configuration, 161 total dock doors and 198 trailer stalls, with the ability to add up to 154 more stalls.
“Forney Logistics Crossing offered investors an ideal combination of new construction, building functionality and short-term weighted average lease term,” Newmark Vice Chairman Dustin Volz said in a prepared statement. “Pair that with a nationally recognized tenant that continues expanding into the East Dallas submarket, this opportunity was extraordinarily well-received by those looking to acquire a best-in-class asset with significant scale in DFW.”
Located near U.S. Highway 80 at 11333 County Road 212, the property offers direct access to DFW’s and Texas’ major commercial hubs via U.S. 80, Interstate 45, Interstate 35E and Interstate 20. Nearby, recently completed developments include built-to-suit projects from Goodyear, Amazon and Ashley Furniture.
The East Dallas industrial submarket has seen significant growth in recent years, largely due to its strong industrial labor base and superior accessibility to the DFW Metroplex, according to Stephen Bailey, a vice president for Newmark.
According to Newmark research, Texas is the second largest destination for industrial investors, with $15.6 billion flowing into the state in 2022. The state is experiencing favorable industrial demand drivers, and its markets will likely continue to flourish in 2023 and beyond, the research suggests.
During 2022, Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio all charted within the top 10 markets for industrial demand in total volume or demand growth as a share of inventory. In 2022, Dallas’ industrial inventory grew to more than 1 billion square feet, putting it in a rarefied “mega-market” category that includes only Chicago and Los Angeles, according to a Newmark report.
The buyer, EQT Exeter, ranks among the largest real estate investment managers in the world, focused on acquiring, developing, leasing and managing logistics/industrial, office, life science and residential properties in Europe, the Americas and Asia. The firm oversees a portfolio totaling over 320 million square feet across 1,550 buildings.
Stillwater Capital, founded in 2006, has developed more than $2 billion in real estate projects. The company has built large apartment projects in markets across Texas and is a partner in the huge Fields development in Frisco, which includes the new headquarters for PGA of the Americas, the Omni Hotel & Resort and surrounding mixed-use development underway and in the pipeline.
In addition to Volz and Bailey, Newmark’s Dom Espinosa, senior managing director; Zach Riebe, managing director; Caroline Wilson, transaction manager; and associates Taylor Hare and Chloie Mercer, worked the deal on the sellers’ behalf.