Savannah is home to one of the five most active ports in the United States and has benefited from considerable investment by the local port authority in expanding port facilities in order to serve growing demand from global distribution users.
We identified an investment opportunity in the Savannah market in September 2018 through the origination of a bridge loan with equity conversion rights on a phased development of a site located within 10 miles of the port that could include in excess of seven million square feet of development when fully built out.
Execution
We exercised our equity conversion rights in July 2019 and entered into a programmatic joint venture with the sponsor, Stonemont Financial Group, to capitalize the phased development of industrial parcels across the park.
After converting to equity, we worked with the local sponsor to develop, lease, and sell eight newly developed industrial buildings to date, serving rapidly growing tenant demand around the Port of Savannah. Three of these parcels were build-to-suit developments.
We have completed construction on the two remaining parcels totaling 2.2M RSF. One of the developments is a build-to-suit for a large, national home-improvement retailer and the final parcel is a speculative development that is now 100% leased to a third-party logistics firm.
