As a hot industrial market, Dallas continues to attract investor attention for its future in e-commerce distribution centers. That includes young and hungry investors like Chicago-based Logistics Property Co., founded in January with the backing of Macquarie Capital Real Estate Investments, which has just entered the DFW industrial market.

Logistics Property Co. entered the market this month with the acquisition of Southport Logistics Park, a 252-acre master-planned logistics development in the South Dallas submarket.

DFW is a growing e-commerce hub, according to the company.

"The facility offers a unique opportunity for e-commerce users looking for large distribution space in one of the fastest-growing logistics locations in the country,” PLR Development President Rob Huthnance said. "The building is positioned to be a meaningful differentiator for e-commerce companies’ distribution needs.”

The company is planning other industrial deals in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Texas in the near term, as part of a pipeline exceeding 20M SF. According to the company, it is targeting leading industrial markets with strong demographics and significant existing infrastructure.

Southport Logistics Park is the first of several scalable, logistics developments for the buyer in Dallas, LPC Executive Vice President-South Region Kent Newsom said.

"As a national industrial player, Dallas is one of our key regional hubs and one of the top five distribution points in the country," Newsom said. "We anticipate continued growth in the industrial industry in Dallas, largely as a result of the e-commerce industry distribution and other macroeconomic indicators."

Southport currently houses 1.5M SF in two buildings, a 400K SF cross-dock facility fully leased to a single company, and a 1.1M SF cross-dock facility being marketed. At full build-out, Southport will house over 3.7M SF of industrial space.

Investors to the DFW market are attracted by strong fundamentals. The local economy created over 114,000 new jobs in the 12 months ending in August, with an annualized employment growth rate of 3.2%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.

There was an increase of industrial portfolio sales in the Metroplex during the third quarter of 2018, with Prologis' acquisition of DCT Industrial Trust being a particular driver within the market, according to Newmark Knight Frank's third-quarter report on the market.

The Southport deal comes in the wake of a similar-sized sale, Liberty Property Trust's acquisition of the 900K SF I-20 Commerce Center from Copeland Commercial. Like Southport, I-20 Commerce Center was a new development, built only last year.

Port Logistics Realty, in a partnership with Diamond Realty Investments, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corp., kicked off development of the spec Southport last year with the completion of the 1.1M SF building.