MDH Partners, of Atlanta, has closed on $90 million in financing from Wells Fargo Bank N.A., expanding an existing $93 million loan MDH has used in making its recent acquisitions of the 603,389-square-foot South Belt Central Building 4 in Houston and the 973,218-square-foot Great Valley Commerce Center near Atlanta.
South Belt Central Building 4 was completed earlier this year by Investment & Development Ventures, of Houston, according to CommercialEdge.
The loan is part of MDH’s Fund II, which builds on $750 million of equity to create $2 billion in acquisition power. The fund includes a mix of large university endowments and foundations and was raised in just two months.
It had originally closed in April 2021 and was expanded from $575 million in October 2022. The fund is 80 percent invested in dozens of industrial acquisitions and new developments across the country.
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Chris Drew and Maxx Carney of JLL Miami represented MDH Partners in the deal. Melissa Frawley and Steve Hinkle of Wells Fargo led the loan origination. In a prepared statement, Frawley referenced a long-time relationship between MDH and Wells Fargo.
Nationally, industrial leasing in the first quarter fell 16.3 percent from the prior quarter, according to JLL’s Industrial Outlook. Overall, vacancy has increased over the same period by 40 basis points, to 3.8 percent.
Year-over-year, absorption in the first quarter saw a 47 percent decline as 58.6 million square feet was absorbed, JLL reported.
Forward thinking
So far this year, MDH Partners has acquired nearly 5 million square feet of industrial assets throughout the U.S.
In April, the company purchased Fort Worth Logistics Hub Building 1, a 670,914-square-foot industrial building in Fort Worth, Texas, from VanTrust Real Estate for $67.5 million.
And in February, MDH entered into a forward purchase agreement to acquire Loop 375 Industrial, an approximately 555,000-square-foot campus set for completion in the third quarter. The seller is developer NIT Industrial. Interestingly, MDH had provided NIT with a construction loan for the project, through MDH Fund II; the loan is coterminous with a senior loan originated through Veritex Community Bank.
