Wauwatosa-based
Wangard Partners Inc. is continuing to grow its portfolio of industrial real estate with the acquisition of a nearly 100,000-square-foot building in New Berlin.
The 99,630-square-foot facility is located 5365 S. Moorland Road. According to state records, Wangard purchased it from an affiliate of Nassco Inc. for $6.22 million.
Nassco is a distributor of janitorial, packaging, food service and safety supplies. It has signed a short-term lease as it looks for a new building to move into, said Ryan Holzhauer, Wangard’s director of industrial development and acquisitions. Holzhauer said he expects Nassco to remain in the Moorland Road facility no longer than six months.
Wangard is marketing the building to prospective tenants. Holzhauer said interest has been strong. The developer will make some aesthetic improvements to the property, such as painting and parking lot and landscaping upgrades. More work, such as adding docks, is possible depending on who the new tenant is.
"We were attracted to the property because New Berlin, even more specific than the overall Waukesha County submarket, is very strong in industrial demand," Holzhauer said.
The firm has other industrial projects underway, such as the development of the new
Highlands Business Park in Sussex. It is also developing
a pair of industrial buildings in a
new business park in Franklin.
Wangard's current industrial portfolio is about 600,000 square feet. It plans to continue growing that, in part because of the strong appetite among its investors, Jonathan Thompson, Wangard's vice president of investor relations, said.
"There's significant investor demand for placing equity for industrial assets," he said. "Whether that is build-to-suit, ground-up developments, strategic acquisitions, value-add opportunities, there's a demand for it from our investor pool that they want more industrial assets in their real estate portfolio. And we try to match the opportunities we present to them with the opportunities they're seeking."
