Real estate investment companies based in Baltimore and Boston are teaming up to build an industrial park along Route 309 just north of Quakertown.

A joint venture between MRP Industrial of Baltimore and Cabot Properties of Boston will break ground this summer on two buildings totaling more than 260,000 square feet on West Pumping Station Road in Richland Township, Bucks County.

The 23-acre site, called Park 309, is less than a half mile east of Route 309 and less than five miles from the Northeast Extension interchange at Route 663. The developers expect to deliver both a 114,400-square-foot building and a 145,800-square-foot building by the end of the year.

According to a news release, both buildings will feature 32-foot clear ceiling heights, two drive-in doors and the option to integrate a high percentage of commercial office.

Brian Knowles and Andrew Komisor with Lee & Associates of Eastern Pennsylvania brokered the land sale. Lee & Associates has also been selected as the leasing broker.

MRP Industrial, a privately held commercial real estate development and investment company, maintains a development pipeline valued at about $350 million. It developed the 1.28 million-square-foot Lehigh Valley Crossings industrial park along Alburtis Road in Lower Macungie Township.

Cabot Properties is a private equity real estate investment firm that manages and operates 168 million square feet of space with more than 3,700 tenants. According to its website, it has invested $283.5 million in 4 million square feet of industrial space in eastern Pennsylvania.

Michael McCarthy, Cabot’s vice president of investments, said the Lehigh Valley and suburban Philadelphia regions continue to fit the profile of attractive industrial development markets because of the “voracious demand for high-quality warehouse and industrial product fueled by the rapid acceleration of the e-commerce industry.”

Lisa Goodwin, senior vice president of MRP Industrial, noted that nearly 10 million people live within a 90-minute drive from the planned industrial park.

“Our team designed two highly flexible buildings that can satisfy the specific real estate needs of a wide range of end-users including companies involved with logistics, manufacturing operations and warehousing,” she said in a statement. “The Lehigh Valley region, in particular, remains extremely vibrant given its strategic positioning within one day’s drive to one-third of all consumers residing in the United States.”

The Lehigh Valley had more than 116 million square feet of industrial building inventory entering 2018, 20 million of which was built in the past five years, according to the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp.

For more information on Park | 309, contact:

Andrew Komisor 610.335.1092 akomisor@lee-associates.com

Brian Knowles, CCIM, SIOR 610.400.0484 bknowles@lee-associates.com

To view the Morning Call article please click HERE.