Growing Logistics Company Answers eCommerce Demand with 17 New Warehouses

pmurphy — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 21:03:42 +0000

The Client

Smart Warehousing is a third-party logistics company based in Kansas City, MO that has become an industry-leading warehousing, fulfillment, and logistical solutions company. Servicing over 600 businesses, Smart Warehousing utilizes its 38 warehouses across the country to help meet the consumers' demand while helping companies grow their brands. Pairing their premium technology, decades of experience and warehouse automation, Smart Warehousing provides a total solution for businesses looking to scale and reach customers across the country.

The Challenge

During the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, more consumers turned to ordering online which spurred massive growth in the eCommerce sector, leading more businesses to turn to 3PLs like Smart Warehousing to help meet the growing demand. With more businesses asking for help, Smart Warehousing needed more warehouses and more space to accommodate the growth. Finding properties in markets across the country that fit the needs of Smart Warehousing was a true challenge. Before leasing a property, it would need to be checked to see if it would be a good fit and would check all the necessary boxes to be an efficient and operational warehouse for Smart Warehousing. Looking for good warehousing space requires not only all the brick-and-mortar checks like clearance height, cross-docks, and proximity to highways, but also whether the right people are near that location to serve their customers. With properties only lasting a few days on the market, Smart needed assistance finding the properties and getting negotiations and paperwork started to not lose out on the property.

Our Approach

To help aid Smart Warehousing in their expansion efforts, the team used our resources to help get potential properties reviewed to ensure they met the detailed requirements needed to be a functional property. With the immediate need for space from Smart, we knew we would need to broker aggressive market rate deals to enable Smart’s growth. Along with negotiating contracts and leases for Smart, we knew we would have to expedite deals, settling contracts in days to help Smart deliver space to their customers.

The Outcome

Since 2017, Lee & Associates has been able to help Smart procure 17 different properties in 12 different cities, adding over 2.3 million square feet to their national network. Our team was able to finalize these deals in 10 days or less, expediting the process for Smart and getting them the properties, they needed to continue their expansion efforts. The team was able to find and close on properties in markets that most companies were struggling to get into as the market was competitive and properties were available for only a few days at most. By finding these properties and more for Smart, the team allowed Smart to take this information to potential customers, giving them an edge to secure accounts to help fill the properties.

The post Growing Logistics Company Answers eCommerce Demand with 17 New Warehouses appeared first on Lee & Associates.

AFF Logistics Center Sale-Leaseback

pmurphy — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 19:46:53 +0000

The Client

American Fast Freight, Inc. (AFF) is a transportation and logistics company, providing a wide range of ocean freight consolidating and freight forwarding, trucking, project logistics and warehousing-distribution services. Since 1988, AFF has grown from a Fife-based freight forwarder serving Alaska, to one of the top logistics and transportation names in the industry, operating a number of container freight terminals throughout the continental United States, including Seattle and Tacoma, WA and Oakland and Long Beach, CA; and Alaska, Hawaii, Florida, Puerto Rico, and Guam. American Fast Freight, Inc. (AFF) is an affiliate of Odyssey Logistics & Technology Corporation, a privately-owned company headquartered in Danbury, CT, which specializes in diverse and complex transportation and logistics services.

The Challenge

When Odyssey Logistics & Technology Corporation, a global leader in complex logistics and technology solutions, acquired American Fast Freight, a specialized freight forwarder headquartered in Fife, Washington, the purchase included ownership of multiple transportation facilities throughout key west coast gateway markets. Included was a “trophy” industrial asset adjacent to the Port of Tacoma in Fife, WA, comprised of a state-of-the-art hybrid cross-dock terminal of approximately 100,000 square feet on 20 acres of paved, secured trailer parking yard area. Odyssey was not in the business of owning real estate, and originally approached the Lee & Associates NW (L&A) listing team for help analyzing their alternatives, including whether they should sell the property vacant and potentially relocate the operations elsewhere, consolidating as a tenant within the market to another facility. With their deep market knowledge and experience, the L&A team knew that this specialized facility was irreplaceable and that a relocation property would be nearly impossible to find in the market. A build-to-suit would be equally as difficult to execute and prohibitedly more expensive due to the scarcity of developable infill industrial land and related costs. Furthermore, the L&A team knew that Odyssey would be leaving a significant amount of value on the table if they took this route of selling the property to a user, or selling essentially vacant to an investor. Valuations by other brokerage firms had indicated a value range of only $18 to $26 million for the property.

Our Approach

Our Lee & Associates team provided detailed reports and financial analysis to make the case internally that the best course of action for the company would be a to conduct a sale-leaseback transaction, whereby the asset would be monetized at favorable market conditions, allowing the operating company to retain occupancy of the mission-critical property. We worked closely with various departments within the organization to best position the asset for sale, making the lease marketable to institutional investors, maximizing the sales proceeds, while still providing the long-term security the company required. Once engaged, the L&A team had a tight deadline with the end of the year fast approaching. By closing the transaction prior by year-end, the seller would save nearly $1 million in additional real estate excise (sale) tax. The team assembled marketing materials and preliminary due diligence materials quickly for expedited review by prospective buyers. By marketing the asset broadly to institutional investors throughout the world, following with direct outreach to the most likely buyers, the team garnered heavy interest in a condensed time period that drove the price higher than expected.

The Outcome

Ultimately, despite some expected road bumps, the L&A team successfully guided the transaction to closing on-time and as-planned for $46.5 million. The L&A team effectively created over $20 million of additional value (compared to the highest valuation provided by Odyssey and other brokerage firms) via the recommended deal structure and aggressive terms, and L&A assisted in saving the client an additional nearly $1 million in sales tax savings by completing the transaction in a very condensed time period.

The post AFF Logistics Center Sale-Leaseback appeared first on Lee & Associates.

Logistics Archives - Lee & Associates

Growing Logistics Company Answers eCommerce Demand with 17 New Warehouses

OVERVIEW

The Client

The Challenge

Our Approach

The Outcome

AFF Logistics Center Sale-Leaseback

OVERVIEW

The Client

The Challenge

Our Approach

The Outcome