EverWest Real Estate Investors recently acquired two industrial properties in the Kent Valley for a total of $12.8M.

The building at 5858 South 194th St., Kent, known as the Automatic Products Building, sold for $8.2M. Industrial Property Group LLC was the seller.

The 46,742 SF building was fully leased to Automatic Products Co. at the time of the sale. It has 24-foot clear height ceilings, three dock-high doors and six grade-level doors.

The 24,175 SF building at 25329 74th Ave. S, Kent, sold for $4.6M. Gregory Real Estate was the seller and purchased the building in 2012 for $2M, according to public records. The facility includes 24-foot clear height ceilings, four dock-high and three grade-level doors, as well as 800 amps of 480-volt power.

Colliers International’s Matt McGregor, Bill Condon and Jack Murphy arranged the sales.

Industrial buildings in Kent continue to be in high demand as less expensive alternatives to Seattle proper. Kent is known for its wide, truck-friendly thoroughfares, but the city is working to make its streets and city more pedestrian-friendly. 

Much of Kent Valley’s industrial economy is in the aerospace sector, with strong ties to Boeing, according to the Kent Valley Economic Development web site.

With its 737 Max groundings, the subcontractors in this subregion may be bracing for a serious slowdown. Boeing will shut its Renton plant down in January, but will not furlough any of its 12,000 Renton plant employees. For Kent Valley subcontractors that rely on the 737 Max production, it’s a different story.

Still, City of Kent Chief Economic Development Officer William Ellis has said that while the local economy owes a debt to Boeing and the Boeing Kent Space Center, the region is not completely dependent on it. He cites Blue Origin as an examples of non-Boeing firms that have gravitated to the Kent Valley, in part because of the number of highly trained employees in the area. 

“I don’t want to sound complacent about Boeing,” Ellis told Bisnow earlier this year. “But we have made a lot of progress in diversification. The new commercial outer space industry is thriving, and that’s a growth industry for Kent and Washington state. It’s not just about commercial airplanes anymore.”