NAI Robert Lynn principal Rick Medinis worked with CBREs capital markets team on the recent$71M sale of the 788k SF Northfield Distribution Center to EastGroup Properties. However, just like the late Paul Harvey would say: heres the rest of the story beyond the significant price tag on the deal.

Rick (also the North Texas SIOR prez) has a long history with the Grapevine property. He tells us that he has been affiliated with the eight-building complex since it opened in 1999. That'swhen it was first developed by Seefried Properties (who completed the business park in 2008). In 2002, AMB Property Corp purchased the first four buildings and entered into a JV with Seefried to develop the last four properties. Upon completion, Seefried completed its role in the project and AMB was the sole owner since 2008 (before merging with Prologis in 2011). Wow, that sounds a lot like the first chapter of The Hobbit.

Hired by Seefried in 1998, Rick leased the projectthroughout the projects history. The latest lease was a 64k SF deal last month to Smart Start, which moving its corporate HQ to consolidate its operations and staff from three separate facilities. That brought the property to 100% leased. When Prologis put the property on the market for sale, the firm hired the CBRE power capital markets team. That group approached Rick because of his experience with this project to help with the listing. The sale closed relatively quickly, he says, and EastGroup Properties asked Rick to stay on and continue leasing it.

Rick says the industrial market is strong with a large amount of big deals done at the end of 2012 and early 2013. Its slowed somewhat and has been replaced with a market chocked full of 20k SF to 120k SF bread and butter deals. Heres Rick and his family; no vacation on the horizon this summer, he says. But, Rick tells us his daughters (ranging from 12 to 18) voted for dad to buy a boat this summer. The plan: to spend lots of time on the water in Louisiana (where his wife is from.)