$33.5M in financing secured for Philadelphia metro area industrial portfolio

MORRISTOWN, N.J., Oct. 5, 2023 – JLL Capital Markets announced today that it arranged $33.5 million in financing for a portfolio of 10 industrial properties totaling 443,488 square feet in the Philadelphia metro area.

JLL represented the borrower, Wharton Industrial, to secure the 5-year, fixed-rate loan from Securian Asset Management on behalf of the lender, Minnesota Life Insurance Company.

The properties within the portfolio are situated across several of the premier industrial submarkets within the Philadelphia MSA, including Southern New Jersey, Suburban Philadelphia and the Lehigh Valley Industrial Submarkets. The 10 properties feature clear heights ranging from 16 to 22 feet, a total of 82 dock-high doors, 15 drive-in doors and 768 parking spaces (1.73 / 1,000). The properties are fully occupied to an expansive and diverse tenant mix of local and national tenants, including Boeing and Fiserv.

The Philadelphia Metro Industrial Market is one of the strongest industrial markets in the country. The respective submarkets each boast equally strong market fundamentals including climbing NNN direct rents and low vacancy rates all of which are consistently less than 5.00%.

The JLL Capital Markets Debt Advisory team was led by Senior Managing Directors Michael Klein, Steven Klein, and Ryan Ade and Associate Ryan Carroll.

“Securian quickly understood the value that the borrower created since purchasing these assets two years ago and was able to provide an attractive rate and term that will enable to Wharton Industrial to execute their business plan for the portfolio,” said Michael Klein.

“Wharton Industrial is a highly regarded institutional sponsor and their attention to detail has yielded significant improvements to the portfolio and enabled us to refinance out of a bridge loan that JLL placed in 2021 and execute fixed rate financing with a life company,” added Steven Klein.

JLL Capital Markets is a full-service global provider of capital solutions for real estate investors and occupiers. The firm's in-depth local market and global investor knowledge delivers the best-in-class solutions for clients — whether investment sales and advisory, debt advisory, equity advisory or a recapitalization. The firm has more than 3,000 Capital Markets specialists worldwide with offices in nearly 50 countries.

For more news, videos and research resources, please visit JLL’s newsroom.

Wharton Industrial, a platform company of Wharton Equity Partners, l is a leading investor and developer of industrial real estate, with a focus on properties across the Eastern Seaboard, Florida, Southeast and Southwest. Steered by the company’s forward-thinking leadership team, Wharton industrial has been extremely active in the industrial sector since 2017, acquiring last-mile distribution facilities in proximity to major urban markets, as well as developing big box spec development projects in the Southeast and flex industrial in the Southwest. Among other projects, the firm is currently developing a 1.5 million SF light industrial project in Mesa, AZ. Since inception, Wharton Industrial has completed, built and has in planning more than $1 billion in transactions, spanning over 11 million square feet.