Cohen Asset Management Adds Nearly 1 Million-Square-Foot Warehouse to Growing Texas Portfolio
Originally posted by Chad Littell and Candace Carlisle, CoStar News
A West Coast real estate investment firm is expanding its holdings in the Lone Star state, having recently purchased a nearly 1 million-square-foot warehouse in Dallas leased to an Amazon affiliate, with plans to continue to add to its Texas holdings.
Cohen Asset Management Inc. purchased the 920,275-square-foot industrial facility at 3351 Balmorhea Drive in Dallas for an undisclosed sum. Amazon spent nearly $4 million building out the warehouse for its distribution needs, according to state work permits.
The Los Angeles-based real estate investment firm is looking forward to adding another leased, state-of-the-art logistics hub to its portfolio. The firm continues “to expand our footprint in the Dallas market with over 8 million square feet,” of industrial space under management in Texas, said Jason Haas, co-chief investment officer at Cohen Asset Management, in a statement.
“Our mission is to create long‐term value as well as near term income returns for our investors, and this property will be a prominent addition to our portfolio as we continue to pursue other strategic investment opportunities in the Texas marketplace,” he added.
The investment firm has a regional office in Dallas, as well as offices in Phoenix and Northern New Jersey. It’s also not the only real estate investment firm seeking to buy high-quality industrial properties in Texas.
In the last 12 months in Dallas-Fort Worth, foreign buyers have acquired 167 properties totaling 20.7 million square feet of space, said Bill Kitchens, CoStar’s director of analytics covering Dallas-Fort Worth, in the latest market analysis.
“Due to continued demand and double-digit rent growth, industrial properties garnered more attention from investors,” Kitchens said. “The Dallas-Fort Worth market reported sales volume totaling $10.3 billion over the past year, up 8% year over year.”
That investor interest has pushed prices higher in the last two years, Kitchens said, adding this is changing as rising interest rates have driven the cost of debt higher resulting in softening asset prices.