Recent commercial real estate transactions

Transactions reported this week include a distribution center in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.

Big Lots, under its property arm West Coast Liquidators, sold its facility, Fourth Street Distribution Center, as a result of the company's move to a new distribution center in Apple Valley, Calif. The discount retailer operated the 1.43 million-square-foot property for 35 years.

The buyer of the industrial facility was not disclosed; however, other media outlets reported it was Bridge Development Partners.

Brokers say the $191 million sale is the Inland Empire’s largest non-portfolio sale ever.

The company reinvested $69 million of the proceeds to exercise a purchase option on its corporate headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, effected through a qualified intermediary to accommodate a tax-deferred exchange. Net after-tax proceeds of approximately $90 million will be used to pay down a portion of the outstanding balance on the company's unsecured line of credit. The company will recognize a one-time, pre-tax gain of approximately $179 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2019.

In a recent report, CBRE noted the Inland Empire’s industrial properties have been seeing strong demand, rising rents, steady development activity and high tenant retention.

Located in the Mojave Desert, the Apple Valley distribution center is a 1.4 million-square-foot facility that will improve speed to market, capacity and service to stores with advanced automation, including an automatic storage retrieval system, robotic depalletizers, carton shuttles and carton sortation equipment. The company will utilize the Rancho Cucamonga distribution center on a leaseback arrangement until the Apple Valley distribution center is fully operational in spring 2020.