Prologis in talks for giant warehouse portfolio, after Blackstone’s monster deal

The purchase would add 38M sf acquisition, and comes a month after it was outbid for a 179M-sf industrial portfolio

Hamid Moghadam of Prologis and Dwight Merriman of Black Creek Group (Credit: iStock, Prologis and Black Creek Group via Twitter)
Hamid Moghadam of Prologis and Dwight Merriman of Black Creek Group (Credit: iStock, Prologis and Black Creek Group via Twitter)

Prologis is in advanced talks to acquire a $4 billion warehouse portfolio, a month after getting outbid by Blackstone in a far larger industrial deal.

Investors are increasingly drawn to warehouse properties, which attract major e-commerce firms, and are typically shielded from drastic market swings. In the fourth quarter of 2018, warehouse vacancy rates were at 7 percent, the lowest point since 2000, during the dot-com boom.

This portfolio, Industrial Property Trust, spans 37.6 million square feet across industrial properties in 21 states, and houses tenants including Amazon and FedEx, according to Bloomberg.

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Black Creek Group listed the portfolio in February, and said it is 96 percent leased, with no occupant accounting for more than 3 percent of annual rents. The outlet reported the deal could be announced as early as this week.

San Francisco-based Prologis, which is one of the largest real estate investment trusts in the U.S. — and valued at $51 billion — has eyed multiple large-volume portfolios in recent years, with limited success. In April last year, it acquired DCT Industrial Trust Inc., a 21 million-square-foot warehouse portfolio, for $8 billion.

Last month, Blackstone outbid it for the U.S. operations of GLP, a Singapore based investment trust. Blackstone ended up paying $18 billion in a deal that amounted to one of the largest real estate transactions in history. [Bloomberg] — David Jeans