VOL. 127 | NO. 18 | Friday, January 27, 2012
Inked
Sarah Baker
Drexel Buys Presidents Is. Warehouse
By Sarah Baker
A longtime Memphis-based agricultural chemical provider has snatched up a warehouse on Presidents Island, where it already has a strong presence.
Drexel Chemical Co. purchased the 137,526-square-foot former manufacturing and distribution facility on 12 acres at 2070 and 2071 Channel Ave. on Presidents Island from HPD Properties LLC for $810,000, or $5.89 per square foot.
Elliot Embry and Eddie Saig with NAI Saig Co. represented HPD Properties LLC – a subsidiary of San Diego-based WD-40 Co. – and were the only brokers involved in the deal.
Drexel’s headquarters is at 1700 Channel Ave., where it also has a warehouse. The firm already has six locations on Presidents Island, including three parcels on Channel, excluding these two recent purchases.
Since the building has been vacant for a while, Embry said, the purchase price was appealing for Drexel.
“They were able to buy a building at a good value that made sense for them,” Embry said. “It’s located down the street from their corporate office, so it was an ideal opportunity for them to acquire additional space on the island to add into their inventory of other property they already have.”
• In other commercial leasing news, Boyle Investment Co. has purchased Faith Christian Church at 4965 Willow Road for $725,000.
Built in 1962, the 24,194-square-foot church was formerly known as The McLemore Avenue Christian Church of Memphis. The 4.7-acre tax-exempt property is near Boyle’s Moriah Woods Office Park, a 155,000-square-foot complex at 1775 Moriah Woods Blvd. that the longtime Memphis commercial real estate firm bought in 2003.
Mark Halperin, executive vice president with Boyle who oversees Moriah Woods, said the firm doesn’t have any plans for the church in the immediate future.
“We just bought it for possible expansion of the Moriah Woods Office Park, and in the short term, we’re just going to rent it to a church,” Halperin said, who wouldn’t disclose the name of the new church. “It’s not completed yet, but we are very close to having it completed. We’re going to let the church announce it. They are very nice people and it’s going to be a good situation for both of us.”
• CB Richard Ellis Memphis closed two multifamily properties in recent weeks – Oakshire and Summer Trace apartments.
Tommy Bronson III and Blake Pera with CBRE Memphis’ multifamily division represented LILO LLC in the sale of Oakshire to Memphis Bell LLC.
Laredo, Texas-based Memphis Bell LLC on Jan. 5 bought the 299-unit Oakshire Apartments just north of the Tennessee-Mississippi state line at 1715 Crimson Road for $2.3 million. Memphis Bell incorporated as a limited liability company in October.
Oakshire is a 300-unit apartment community built in 1969 in the West Winchester apartment submarket. The Class D apartments range from studios to townhouses.
The Shelby County Assessor of Property lists the complex at 1717 Crimson, and the combined 2011 appraisal for the three-parcel site is $1.8 million.
Memphis Bell’s purchase also covers a 1,160-square-foot house built in 1956 at 5324 Millbranch Road, at the southeast corner of Millbranch and Crimson. Its 2011 appraisal is $69,800.
Bronson and Pera also brokered the $306,900 sale of Summer Trace from LEDIC Management Group LLC to SBV-Memphis-Summer Trace LLC.
Summer Trace is a 192,000-square-foot, 255-unit apartment community built in 1973 in the Raleigh/Bartlett apartment submarket. Robert Loeb sold Summer Trace in 2007 for $7 million to Cayd Hannibal II Inc., according to the Shelby County Register of Deeds.
Summer Trace offers a range of one-, two- and three-bedroom units that average 753 square feet. It is on 6015 Summer Trace Drive between Sycamore View and Raleigh LaGrange roads.
Meanwhile, CBRE’s retail service division has recently inked a pair of deals.
Health Spring LLC has signed a new 3,600-square-foot lease in Belvedere Commons, 5339 Elvis Presley Blvd.
CBRE associate Brian Whaley represented the landlord. Chris Mason of Jackson Cooksey represented the tenant.
And Boost Mobile signed a new 1,200-square-foot lease in the Four Way Plaza at Stage Road and U.S. 70 in Bartlett. Whaley represented the landlord.