December 8, 2016

Tacoma sawmill site sold to Denver firm that plans 2 industrial buildings

Image by Industrial Property Trust [enlarge]

IPT Logistics Center will have two buildings totaling 1.1 million square feet. They will open in 2018, and can be divided into smaller spaces.

The site of Tacoma's former Simpson Tideflats sawmill at 733 E. 11th St. has sold.

The Industrial Property Trust of Denver purchased the 58-acre site from Interfor, a Vancouver, B.C.-based lumber company.

Pierce County property records show the company paid $32.4 million for the parcel, according to The News Tribune.

IPT plans to redevelop the site as IPT Logistics Center, with two industrial buildings totaling 1.1 million square feet that can be divided into spaces as small as 60,000 square feet.

The buildings will have ESFR sprinkler systems, 167 trailer stalls and 704 parking spaces.

The new buildings are expected to be ready in the first quarter of 2018.

No details were available about the project's design and construction team.

“Having had continued success in the greater Seattle market since 2010, we were excited for the opportunity to develop big box industrial in this strategic Tacoma location,” said J.R. Wetzel, managing director of the western region for Industrial Property Trust, in a news release.

Wetzel said the area has a historically low supply of Class A warehouse space.

In the past two years, Industrial Property Trust has spent about $150 million on a dozen industrial properties in the Seattle/Tacoma market totaling about 1.5 million square feet, according to the company's website.

Tony Kusak, senior director at Cushman & Wakefield Commerce in Seattle, was the lead broker on the Simpson sawmill transaction.

The lumber mill was one of four Simpson properties Interfor Corp. bought for $94.7 million in March 2015.

The company shut down the mill May 22, 2015, after experiencing difficulties in making the relatively modern mill profitable. The site went on the market in July 2015.

This article contains information from The Associated Press.