Colony Capital beefed up its collection of light and bulk industrial buildings, purchasing a portfolio of 54 properties for $1.16B through its Colony Industrial affiliate. This one transaction expands Dallas-based Colony’s industrial platform by 25% in square footage.

The publicly traded real estate investment firm is the latest to throw its weight around the industrial space, which has gone from strength to strength as companies’ last-mile activity pushes demand for warehouse space.

“This acquisition represents a strategic expansion by Colony’s industrial platform into the bulk industrial space which complements our strong presence in last-mile, warehouse logistics,” Colony Capital Managing Director Lew Friedland said. “Our growing national network of industrial warehouse options gives us new opportunities to serve customers and create synergies from strong existing relationships with tenants, owners, sellers and brokers.”

The portfolio is considered value-add and includes 11.9M SF in 10 U.S. markets.

Colony says 48 of the buildings acquired are considered last-mile industrial and were purchased through the company’s light industrial platform. Another six buildings are considered bulk industrial and were acquired through a new joint venture between Colony Capital and a third-party institutional investor.

The majority of the acquisition is made up of light industrial assets totaling 7.7M SF — all of which is contained within nine U.S. markets in California, Washington state, Oregon, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Four of the buildings in the light industrial portfolio will be closing within the next six months.

The light industrial portfolio is 73% leased and houses national and international corporations as tenants.

The bulk assets acquired represent 4.2M SF across six buildings in five markets, with an average 700K SF per building. They are in Oregon, Northern California, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Most of the assets in the bulk group are new, with an average year built of 2015. The buildings are about 67% leased to blue-chip, international firms.

CBRE National Partners represented the seller.