The Department of Homeland Security has been buying up warehouses and industrial properties around the country to increase the capacity of its detention centers.
But now, the agency is looking to get rid of most of them.
The department’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, on a mission to add tens of thousands of beds to its detention centers, scooped up 11 industrial properties across the country over the past year. Nine of those deals totaled $911 million, according to an analysis by The Real Deal of media reports and PropertyShark data. ICE had attempted to acquire another seven buildings, but those transactions fell through.
ICE has been hit with a slew of environmentally-related lawsuits and intense community pushback that have caused the agency to reevaluate its purchases. Now, it plans to sell or give seven properties valued at $700 million to other agencies, according to the New York Times.
The move to purchase the properties was part of the department’s $38.3 billion detention model — one that has some landlords on board but also has seen strong pushback. Those who oppose the immigration crackdown and, specifically, the detention centers, have called out the centers’ inhumane conditions.
The priciest megacenter deal was in Salt Lake City, Utah, where an affiliate of DWS Group sold 6020 West 300 South for $145.5 million. ICE plans to sell this facility.
Of the nine transactions that have closed, just two were in blue states and are among the seven ICE may sell: Dalfen Industrial’s sale of 1879 Route 46 in Roxbury, New Jersey and RSE Capital Partners’ sale of 10900 Hopewell Road in Hagerstown, Maryland. The ICE facility in New Jersey is on hold amid an environmental review.
As for the already canceled deals, three were in blue states: two in Minnesota, which has been home to some of the strongest anti-ICE protests in the country, and where ICE agents shot and killed two protest observers by ICE agents, and another in Virginia.
ICE also plans to invest in 16 smaller centers that will house up to 1,500 detainees for stays of less than a week. These centers are where detainees will be processed to then be transferred to the megacenters, where they may stay “for periods averaging less than 60 days.”
The Real Deal will continue to track deals as they occur.