An industrial property at 601 Monster Rd. S.W. in Renton has sold for $8.7 million, according to King County records. The seller was Graphic Packaging International, which acquired the property in 2006 for almost $5.7 million.
Atlanta-based Graphic Packaging had announced two years ago that the plant would close, with 108 workers to be laid off in phases into 2016. Some were to be offered positions at the company’s locations in Portland and Vancouver.
The buyer was DCT Monster Road LLC, which is associated with DCT Industrial of Denver.
James Philpott of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller, and Tony Kusak of C&W represented DCT.
The 147,300-square-foot plant was developed in 1956 on 9.6 acres. The property is near the Green River, and northeast of the junction of Interstate 5 and Interstate 405.
DCT said in its third quarter financial results that it would develop DCT Monster Road Distribution Center on the property, with about 161,000 square feet.
DCT’s Patrick Gemma confirmed in an email that the old building would be demolished. The new facility will be a tilt-up concrete structure with 32-foot clear heights on a seven-inch slab. It will have 23 dock doors, and a 180-foot truck court with 18 trailer parking stalls. About 157 parking spaces are planned.
Innova Architects will design the structure. No general contractor has been selected yet. Kusak and Connor Cree of C&W will market the space.
Gemma said he hoped to start the speculative project next spring and finish by the fall of 2018.
Leasing DCT Monster Road should not be a problem. In its recent third quarter market report, Kidder Mathews said the industrial vacancy rate in this region rose slightly to 3.3 percent.
DCT calls Renton the “North Kent Valley submarket.” Having a logistics center here would put DCT near what KM calls the close-in market, which has an even tighter vacancy rate of 1.79 percent.
DCT is a large REIT that has been very active in this region. It is currently developing the 53-acre DCT Blair Logistics Center at the Port of Tacoma, the 16-acre DCT 167 Landing in Sumner and the 17-acre DCT Hudson Distribution Center in Auburn.
DCT currently lists six local properties with four million square feet. Nationally it has over 73 million square feet in its portfolio.
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