Atlanta's MDH Partners buys into Orlando industrial market for $11.5M, seeks more

Atlanta-based industrial real estate investment group MDH Partners paid an estimated $11.5 million on Sept. 16 to break into the Orlando market, buying three warehouse parcels in the Richmond Heights neighborhood.

The company is now actively looking for more industrial sites locally, CEO Jeff Small told GrowthSpotter.

Located in the 4600 block of L.B. Mcleod Road and within the 33rd Street Industrial Park, the buildings were built between 1992 and 1999, totaling 11.27 acres and 208,000 square feet. They were roughly 80 percent occupied upon purchase, and host a range of tenants that include a local gymnastics gym, a baseball academy and suppliers to residential construction.

Working with several large institutional capital investor partners, MDH owns and manages warehouse and distribution center properties throughout the southeast United States.

This was the company's first acquisition in Orlando, which will be a focal market for MDH going forward, Small said.

"Orlando has become a target market because of its strategic placement in Central Florida," he said. "We see it as a future high-growth market, which includes local distribution growth, and as a logistics base for Central Florida overall."

MDH was attracted to the property in part because of its "infill" location profile, based within the city while also being just a few miles west of an I-4 exit.

"We see this property attracting warehouse tenants, maybe small manufacturers, but firms that likely serve the Orlando area that will like that local and highway access," Small said. "We see a lot of potential from the recovery of home-building here, and all the ancillary businesses that supply that growth."

The company is developing capital improvement plans to update the handful of vacant segments remaining in the buildings, but Small offered no time line for the work.

MDH funded the acquisition in part from a loan through MetLife in Atlanta, an addition to an existing loan the company had from a prior acquisition, Small said.

Former owner GA Lb Mcleod Road LLC, an affiliate of Principal Global Investors, previously bought the three parcels in September 2011 for a total of $9.76 million.

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