The market for last-mile distribution centers is heating up, with several D.C. and Baltimore-area industrial properties trading hands in recent weeks.

Goldman Sachs acquired a four-property portfolio totaling 650K SF from Exeter Property Group for $66.7M. The portfolio consists of three Howard County industrial buildings at 7587, 7591 and 7595 Montevideo Road in Jessup, Maryland, and one Prince George's County property at 7100 Old Landover Road in Landover, Maryland. The portfolio was 96% leased at the time of the sale.

Cushman & Wakefield's Jonathan Carpenter and Graham Savage represented the seller. Carpenter said he closed another Baltimore-area industrial deal last week more than three times the size.

The larger deal consisted of 20 buildings totaling 2.8M SF. The majority of the portfolio is in the Baltimore area, with about 400K SF of it near Philadelphia. TA Realty sold that portfolio for $201M to Colony Northstar.

Carpenter said the market for last-mile distribution centers, which represent the final stop before an e-commerce order arrives at the customer's door, has been red-hot this year, especially in the D.C.-Baltimore area.

“We put out some large portfolios this year and buyers were aggressively interested,” said Carpenter, who expects to close another large deal in the coming weeks. “The fundamentals of the product type are continuing to improve.”

A recent CBRE report found that of the 15 largest U.S. markets, D.C.-Baltimore had the third-shortest average distance from last-mile distribution centers to population clusters, meaning progress has been made shortening delivery time. At an average of 6.8 miles, D.C. tied New York and trailed only San Francisco and Los Angeles.