EQT Exeter has purchased the first phase of The Hub at London Groveport, an industrial park in the Columbus suburb of Lockbourne, Ohio, as well as a 6.7-acre trailer parking lot, in Greater Columbus, Ohio. A joint venture between Xebec and Heitman sold the assets with assistance from JLL.
The Hub’s Phase One comprises 1,590,495 square feet across four industrial buildings that debuted in 2021. Two more facilities are expected to come online during Phase Two.
The portfolio includes a cross-dock facility measuring approximately 1 million square feet and three rear-load properties totaling 531,495 square feet.
All four buildings have 32-foot clear heights and a total of 277 dock-high doors and 10 grade-level doors, while truck courts’ depth ranges between 60 and 130 feet. The portfolio was 91 percent leased at the time of sale, Amazon being one of the two tenants on the roster.
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Carrying the addresses 6201 and 6322 Collings Drive, as well as 1260 and 1302 London Groveport Road, The Hub is 10 miles southeast of downtown Columbus. Rickenbacker International Airport—one of the world’s largest cargo-dedicated airports, handling monthly more than 30 million pounds—operates 3 miles away.
The JLL team representing the seller included Senior Managing Director John Huguenard, President Jody Thornton, Managing Director Ed Halaburt and Director William McCormack.
EQT Exeter expands near airports
As of October, EQT Exeter had more than $30 billion in global equity under management. Across the globe, the company owns and operates north of 2,000 assets spanning more than 375 million square feet—and it keeps expanding its industrial portfolio.
Just this week, EQT Exeter paid $143.2 million in an all-cash transaction for the Phoenix Gateway Portfolio. Link Logistics sold the six industrial buildings encompassing 860,200 square feet, also located in an airport submarket.
Despite sizable pipeline, Columbus’ industrial vacancy remains stable
The industrial investment volume in Greater Columbus reached $571 million year-to-date as of August, according to a CommercialEdge report. Assets traded for $82 per square foot, below the national average of $132 per square foot.
In one of the metro’s larger transactions W.P. Carey acquired Rickenbacker Exchange at Commercial Point’s Building 2, a 1.2 million-square-foot speculative industrial facility. VanTrust Real Estate sold the asset for $94.1 million.
Greater Columbus’ vacancy rate clocked in at 4.6 percent in August, the report goes on to show. The Discovery City had the third-lowest rate in the U.S., overshadowed only by Charlotte, N.C. (4.0 percent), and Bridgeport, Conn. (4.2 percent).
One factor in Greater Columbus’ rise in vacancy can be attributed to its industrial pipeline. As of August, the metro had 8.7 million square feet of industrial space underway—representing 2.8 percent of stock, ahead of the national average of 1.9 percent, the same source reveals.