Some major industrial markets are getting a little too hot for some investors, so they're looking elsewhere for deals—such as the Puget Sound area. HFF managing director Nicholas Kucha tells us supply and demand trends have driven down yields in core industrial markets like Long Beach, and more investors are "sourcing product in newly emerging core markets near Seattle in order to achieve their allocations for industrial assets." He adds that he's also seeing public REITs like Prologis and private REITs like Industrial Property Trust (IPT) acquire product at an increasing pace, to place capital in Seattle’s industrial market.

Recently Nicholas, along with colleague James Childress and Washington Real Estate Advisors' Wilma Warshak, repped the sellers of a three-building light manufacturing, flex and distribution portfolio totaling 138k SF in the West Valley Distribution Center in Kent, which traded for over $11M. The seller was ScanlanKemperBard Cos and funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management; the buyer was IPT.