Heartland Capitalizes on Inland Empire Trucking Facility
Trucking services have become a major focal point as the industry grapples with rampant e-commerce growth
By Greg Cornfield May 27, 2022 4:25 pm
reprints
Eat your heart out, Inland Empire.
Realterm, a Maryland-based investment firm focused on transportation and logistics, has acquired a rare-asset trucking facility in the city of Rancho Cucamonga in San Bernardino County, Commercial Observer has learned. Realterm acquired the facility from Heartland Express in a sale leaseback deal for $95.5 million.
The trucking facility includes 32,458 square feet at 8566 Pecan Avenue. Colliers (CIGI)’ Jace Gan and Clyde Stauff facilitated the deal along with Realterm’s Blair Duncan and Derek Fish.
“It was a combination of Heartland changing a little bit of their network and looking to take advantage of top market pricing,” Gan told Commercial Observer.
Trucking services have become a major focal point as the industry grapples with rampant e-commerce growth and supply-chain issues causing overflow at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. And assets such as trucking terminals are seeing new investor interest.
“This property is irreplaceable with Class A improvements. You can’t build this again,” Gan said. “Every city and municipality has been forcing truckers and these uses out, even though that’s basically all the consumer needs.”
After the first quarter, Heartland reported $16.8 million in net income, $151.3 million in operating revenue and $22.4 million of operating income, a 22.5 percent increase year over year.
“Freight demand has continued to be strong even though demand has reached lower levels during the first quarter,” Heartland Express CEO Mike Gerdin said in a statement after the first quarter. “While the current levels are down compared against the unprecedented levels experienced in the later months of 2021, we continue to have significantly more opportunities to haul freight than we are able to cover with our existing fleet and available drivers.”
Realterm currently manages more than $11 billion in assets through five transportation logistics-oriented private equity funds, according to its website.
“The Inland Empire market is incredibly tight, especially with truck uses being almost nonexistent,” Gan said. “Being able to acquire a facility like this in a market that is starved for this type of use is huge.”
Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.
