Lingerfelt sells Chesterfield warehouse to national logistics firm for $35M

The 240,000-square-foot warehouse at 801 Port Walthall Drive in southern Chesterfield. (Photos courtesy Lingerfelt)

As it proceeds with a joint venture for a new distribution center near Prince George, a local real estate investment firm has unloaded a similar facility it recently developed in southern Chesterfield.

Henrico-based Lingerfelt recently sold Port 801, a 240,000-square-foot distribution warehouse at 801 Port Walthall Drive, to national firm LBA Logistics for $35.5 million.

The deal was announced in early February but wasn’t reflected in Chesterfield County’s online property records until last month. Lingerfelt said in its announcement that the sale closed Jan. 31.

Brian Witthoefft

Port 801 was developed on spec in 2022 and at the time of the sale was fully leased by two tenants: UPS, which uses 134,000 square feet of the building, and pallets maker PECO Pallet, which took the remaining 106,000 square feet last September.

Lingerfelt President Brian Witthoefft said the plan all along was to sell the property once it was leased up.

“Our initial strategy for Port 801 was to construct, lease, and then market the property for sale once stabilized,” Witthoefft said in an email. “With strong tenancy and long-term leases in place, Port 801 was very attractive to institutional investors.”

Lingerfelt’s announcement of the sale described both leases as long-term. The lease-up was handled by Colliers agents Wood Thornton, Rob Dirom and Frank Hargrove III.

LBA Logistics, with headquarters in California, has an industrial-focused portfolio that includes two other Richmond-area properties: a cluster of warehouses totaling 1.9 million square feet in the 4000 block of Carolina Avenue, beside Richmond Raceway; and the 344,000-square-foot Woodlands Logistics Center on Eastpark Court near Richmond International Airport.

Ben Humphreys, LBA’s acquisitions director, said the company wouldn’t comment on the Port 801 deal.

The Port 801 warehouse is leased by UPS and PECO Pallet.

JLL’s Capital Markets team, led by Bill Prutting out of its D.C. office, represented Lingerfelt in the sale. Witthoefft said they marketed Port 801 nationally and internationally and received interest from investors locally and regionally as well.

“Richmond is now being described by many institutional investors as a top 15, top 10, or even top 5 industrial market from their perspective. Liquidity in secondary markets is always an area of concern for many institutional investors. That is no longer the case for the industrial sector in Richmond,” he said.

Port 801 includes a 32-foot clearance height, Early Suppression Fast Response sprinklers, 56 equipped dock-high doors, off-dock trailer and car parking, and a 190-foot-deep truck court.

The 17-acre property was most recently assessed by the county at $28.8 million, up from the $25.7 million value it was given after the building’s completion in 2023.

LBA Logistics will provide its own property management. Range Commercial Partners had previously managed the property.

The project was constructed by ARCO Design/Build, which also is building the 348,000-square-foot TriPoint Distribution Center that Lingerfelt is developing near Prince George with SCOA Real Estate Partners.

The Port 801 sale adds to other deals that have kept the region’s industrial market hot in recent months. Late last year, Ares Management Corp. bought the three-building Airport Logistics Center in eastern Henrico for nearly $67 million.

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