YRC Logistics Takes 121,000 SF

PITTSBURGH-YRC Logistics recently signed a “long-term” lease for a new 119,000-square-foot building at Turnpike Distribution Center, according to Grubb & Ellis, which has the leasing assignment for the building. Located 40 miles northwest of Downtown Pittsburgh in New Galilee, the development sits within 500 miles of 50% of the US population.

The building owner is Turnpike Distribution LP, a joint venture of Pittsburgh-based developer Castlebrook Development, Cincinnati-based general contractor Al Neyer Inc. and Pittsburgh-based The Erect Fund, an investment fund that invests on behalf of local pension funds. The lease commences next month.

The specific term and rate on the lease agreement were not released by the parties involved and not otherwise immediately available. The listing broker, Louis Oliva of Grubb & Ellis Co.’s Global Logistics Group, declined comment on the lease details. Long-term leases are typically at least seven years in duration. The advertised lease rate for the building was $4.95 per square foot, NNN.

Located at the intersection of I-76 and Route 60, Turnpike Distribution Center is 10 miles east of the Ohio border, 19 miles west of I-79 and 26 miles south of I-80. “[The location] is ideal for a global logistics company like YRC,” Oliva said in a prepared statement. “The building’s features, including concrete panel construction, ESFR sprinkler system and fire-rated demising walls, as well as the site’s security, were…valuable attributes for the new tenant.”

Vacancy in the Pittsburgh industrial market jumped 130 basis points in the first quarter to a still relatively healthy 8.4%, according to a market report from Grubb & Ellis. A significant amount of the increase is attributable to the closure of the 800,000-square-foot GM Stamping Plant in West Mifflin in the 6.6 million-square-foot South submarket, which now sports a 23.2% vacancy rate. The 13 million square-foot West submarket, which includes Turnpike Distribution Center, has a vacancy rate of 11.9% and an average weighted asking rate of $5.42 per square foot, NNN. The average asking rate market-wide for distribution space was $4.48 per square foot, according to G&E.