Industrial Outdoor Ventures, which bills itself as the leading national owner of low coverage industrial property, has purchased its first asset in Baltimore.

The firm acquired a 36-acre site with 210K SF of industrial buildings at 3501 East Biddle St., Cushman & Wakefield announced Monday.

The buyer said the property is the most significant asset it has acquired in terms of the square footage of the built structures.

Low coverage industrial properties typically have less than 30% of their land area occupied by buildings, with the rest featuring vehicles and other equipment. The industrial outdoor storage market has recorded strong tenant demand in recent years, and it has become an increasingly attractive asset class for large investors looking to diversify their portfolios.

“We are excited about this acquisition because it allows IOV to enter a strong market where we’ve been searching for opportunities for quite some time,” IOV Senior Vice President of Development & Acquisitions Eric Johnson said in a release.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Jonathan Carpenter, Graham Savage and McLane Fisher represented Industrial Outdoor Ventures in the deal.

“3501 East Biddle Street is a low coverage site strategically located just north of the Port of Baltimore,” Savage said in the release. “The property presented investors with the opportunity to control a large land site with tremendous demand drivers from the port and staggered rollover with the existing tenants.”

The broker and buyer didn't disclose the price paid for the property. However, Maryland property assessors valued the address at more than $18M earlier this year.

Property records also reveal how much demand for properties like 3501 East Biddle St., located minutes from the Port of Baltimore, has increased in the past two decades. In 2003 Republic Engineered Steels purchased the property for $2.37M, and four years later, sold it for $3.15M. However, when the property sold again in 2015, the price topped $19M.

Johnson said the purchase “follows a traditional value add strategy” because of the available acres for lease and the potential to ink two long-term leases with existing tenants.

The property is near fully leased, except for a 2-acre section of its yard, which is being marketed. Tenants include GAF Materials Corp., SH Bell Co. and First Student.