Boston equity firm buys St. Pete properties for $37M+

Boston-based Taurus Investment Holdings has purchased five industrial St. Petersburg properties as part of a major acquisition. 

This month, Taurus announced it acquired the Sunbelt Infill Portfolio, which consists of 13 Class A and Class B industrial assets totaling over 1.4 million square feet across Atlanta, Houston and Florida. 

The acquired five St. Pete properties include two industrial parks in the Pinellas Gateway submarket, Metropointe Commerce Center and Westbay Corporate Center. Taurus purchased the St. Pete properties for a grand total of $37.45 million, according to Pinellas County records.  

“Taurus remains committed to finding additional expansion opportunities in Tampa and specifically St. Pete. Tampa as a whole is experiencing record-setting figures in the industrial market as strong population and job growth have fueled consumer spending. The market continues to outpace the national average in both population growth and unemployment,” Bill Garey, director of acquisitions at Taurus, said to the St. Pete Catalyst. 

“From an industrial perspective, Tampa serves a critical role in the supply chain for Florida. These buildings in particular are located in Pinellas which is about 2% vacant overall (across 45 million square feet of product, according to CBRE) and seeing record leasing velocity. As an example, the St. Pete assets in our portfolio were 91% occupied when we acquired them last week and are now already 100% leased just a few days later,” he continued, stating there will not be any significant changes made to the buildings in the parks. 

Under the same buying entity, TCD 245 Sunbelt Property LLC, Taurus took out a $54.8 million loan from Capital One National Mortgage. 

The Summit Real Estate Group previously owned the St. Pete properties, which it acquired in 2018 for $17.4 million. The Metropointe Commerce Center is a Class B business park, while the Westbay Corporate Center is classified as a Class A park. They total 230,542 square feet of industrial space. 

“This acquisition underscores our commitment to the industrial sector and reflects our team’s ability to transact in a competitive environment while continuing to generate above-market returns. As a leading operator of industrial properties, we are excited to re-enter the Florida market and to expand our presence in Atlanta and Houston,” Lathan Allen, managing director at Taurus, said in a release about the overall acquisition. 

Taurus has acquired over 27 million square feet of logistics/distribution space in the U.S. market over the past five years. The acquisition of the Sunbelt Infill Portfolio brings Taurus’ active industrial portfolio to over 16 million square feet that are 96% leased to more than 700 tenants, according to Taurus. 

“One of the things we really like is the industrial sector’s ability to be a hedge against inflation and this latest acquisition highlights our continued commitment to adding strategically located industrial assets to our substantial portfolio,” Taurus CEO Peter Merrigan said in a news release.