Investor pays $23.5 million for Lakeville warehouse.

Byline: Brian Johnson

A Toronto-based investor has paid $23.5 million for a 282,100-square-foot single-tenant warehouse in Lakeville as part of a larger acquisition of industrial buildings in multiple U.S. markets.

The Lakeville property, at 9150 217th St. W., is one of 13 buildings acquired by WPT Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust in a $226 million deal, according to a press release. The buildings, with a combined 2.2 million square feet of gross leasable area, are in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Florida and California.

"We were pleased to quickly deploy the proceeds from our recent equity offering into a large portfolio that adds properties in some of the most desired logistics markets in the U.S. and enhances the overall diversification and quality of the REITs portfolio," Scott Frederiksen, chief executive officer of WPT Industrial REIT, said in a statement.

WPT Industrial REIT acquired the Lakeville building from FR/Cal Interstate South, LLC, an institutional owner registered to the CBRE Investors office in Los Angeles, according to a certificate of real estate value made public this week.

The sale works out to $83.39 per square foot. By comparison, WPT Industrial REIT purchased the 250-acre Carlson Business Center in November 2016 for $46.2 million, or $82.44 per square foot.

With available land, good infrastructure and convenient access along the Interstate 35 corridor, Lakeville is a growth area for industrial properties, said Judd Welliver, a first vice president with the Minneapolis office of CBRE.

"I would call it an...