Colliers International
Pa Keystone Industrial Port Complex Outline
Pa Keystone Industrial Port Complex Outline
Pa Keystone Industrial Port Complex Outline
Pa Keystone Industrial Port Complex Outline
Pa Keystone Industrial Port Complex Outline

U.S. Steel sells Keystone Industrial Port Complex for $160 million

Jan. 13, 2021
NorthPoint Development plans to transform 1,800-acre Pennsylvania site into a superregional bulk logistics center

NorthPoint Development recently purchased the iconic Keystone Industrial Port Complex (KIPC) in Fairless Hills PA from United States Steel Corporation for $160 million with plans to redevelop the property into a bulk logistics center with an estimated 10 million square feet of Class A industrial space.

Colliers International Group represented U.S. Steel in the sale of the complex.

NorthPoint intends to break ground on Phase I of the project, totaling approximately 3 million square feet, this spring, Colliers said.

“The industrial sector is one of the highest performing real estate asset classes in today’s market, both from a capital markets and leasing perspective,” said David Amsterdam, Colliers’ president of U.S. capital markets and the Northeast region. “Despite current economic uncertainties, our teams across the country have continued to successfully execute industrial transactions of this scale, and I foresee this trend continuing.”

The KIPC is one of the most prominent and expansive industrial redevelopment opportunities on the East Coast, Colliers said. Today, it contains about 1.5 million square feet of industrial product on approximately 1,800 acres of land. U.S. Steel began steel production on the site in 1954 and at its peak employed nearly 10,000 workers onsite. Given the property’s established logistics infrastructure, including an inland port, 75 miles of rail service, and 132 kVA of power, the property has been transformed into a multi-tenanted industrial park with prominent corporate users such as Airgas, Kinder Morgan, Starwood Energy Group, Toll Brothers and Covanta Metals.

With an urban-proximate location between New York and Washington D.C., the site is situated to accommodate superregional bulk logistics requirements. The property also offers proximity to coastal ports, parcel processing shipping centers, and labor. Its critical mass, market barriers to entry, and adjacency to the new I-95 interchange contributed to the capital demand for this investment opportunity, Colliers added.

“The critical milestones for developing investor engagement and establishing market pricing took place concurrently with COVID-19 shutdowns and peak economic volatility,” said Michael Blunt, Colliers executive vice president. “There was zero deterioration in pricing or capital demand despite the challenging market conditions, which is a testament to the solidity of industrial fundamentals and the property itself.”

Colliers will act as NorthPoint’s leasing agent for the planned redevelopment, which will be rebranded as the Keystone Trade Center.

“This iconic property is an incredibly unique redevelopment opportunity within a Tier 1 industrial market,” said Thomas Golarz, vice president of Colliers’ Philadelphia industrial logistics and transportation team. “NorthPoint’s ability to deliver bulk logistics space to a market experiencing record low vacancy, while also providing access to a plentiful labor supply and transportation infrastructure, will undoubtedly result in success.”

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