KKR Buys Philly Warehouse from Dov Hertz for $83M

While the industrial market isn’t as hot as it was a couple of years ago, deals are still unfolding, such as one between two New York-based firms transacting in Philadelphia.

Dov Hertz’s DH Property Holdings sold a 283,000-square-foot distribution warehouse in Northeast Philadelphia to an affiliate of global investment giant KKR for $83.5 million, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported. The deal breaks down to about $295 per square foot.

Hertz’s firm completed construction on the property at 9801 Blue Grass Road two years ago, two years after buying the 21-acre site from Sant Properties for $10.5 million. PCCP provided DH with a $62 million construction loan for the project, which is fully leased to discount clothing retailer TJ Maxx’s parent company TJX companies.

The property includes 54-foot clear heights and close access to I-95.

Hertz described his firm to the publication as “merchant builders,” noting it was never going to hang on to the asset for the long-term.

CBRE’s Brian Fiumara and Brad Ruppel represented the seller.

KKR is investing in both multifamily and industrial real estate in Philadelphia. Two years ago, the firm broke the multifamily sale price record in the city with its $357 million purchase of the Philadelphia City complex from Post Brothers. It also bought three warehouses in the area over the summer as part of a larger $377 million deal.

But the firm also parted ways with 400 Market Street and the Bourse building — a pair of office properties — for $41 million and is moving to offload more properties in the Old City district.

Hertz is a well known player in New York real estate and a leading land assembler. He worked at Extell Development for 14 years, piecing together development sites for One57and Central Park Tower condominiums.

He started DH Property Holdings in 2016, focused on industrial properties. His more notable projects include a 1.3 million-square-foot warehouse he sought to build in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park; he sold the unfinished project this year for $248 million.

Hertz recently settled a lawsuit filed by a Brooklyn woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her more than four decades ago, when she was a teenager babysitting for his family.

— Holden Walter-Warner