Longtime Alta Vista tenant gets new landlord - for $15.25M
January 4, 2019
Rick Shrum
Observer Reporter
Gardner Denver Nash has a new landlord in Alta Vista Business Park in Fallowfield Township – a landlord that, apparently, is eager to invest.
Boston-based Stag Industrial Holdings paid $15.25 million for the manufacturing facility for pumps and compressors, according to real estate records. The seller was listed as Two Thousand Eleven Alta Vista II LP, a developer group headed by John LaCarte, vice chairman of the Mon Valley Alliance, a nonprofit that owns the 256-acre park in Fallowfield Township.
LaCarte, who also is a private real estate developer, confirmed that the sale closed Dec. 11.
“This is simply a real estate transaction between the property owner and an investment company,” LaCarte said. “This made financial sense for Alta Vista and for the partners.”
STAG Industrial is a publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trust that owns a number of Western Pennsylvania properties. Representatives from STAG and Gardner Denver Nash did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment.
The company says, on its website, that it is “focused on the acquisition and operation of single-tenant, industrial properties throughout the United States. By targeting this type of property, STAG has developed an investment strategy that helps investors find a powerful balance of income plus growth.
“They are very bullish on commercial real estate in Pennsylvania,” LaCarte said.
The seller in this deal was represented by Lou Oliva, executive managing director of the Pittsburgh office of Newmark Knight Frank.
“Over the years, I’ve probably sold seven or eight buildings in the area (to STAG),” said Oliva, a Peters Township resident.
He added that the Gardner Denver Nash facility, with more than 100,000 square feet of operating space, is the first Alta Vista building to be sold to a third party. That structure stands high on a hill, visible to passers-by tooling down Interstate 70 near Bentleyville.
Gardner Denver Nash, a Quincy, Ill.-based company dating to 1905, broke ground at Alta Vista in 2011 and began production there six months later. It was the first tenant in the second phase of development at the park.
Alta Vista has been percolating with activity over the past three months. On Oct. 18, Nine Energy Service, a Houston, Texas-based oil and gas company, broke ground on a new regional headquarters. Nine Energy has outgrown its offices in Chartiers Township, near the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum.
Then Dec. 10, MVA announced that Apex International had purchased a 12.95-acre site, where it plans to build a new North America operations facility. The company’s Apex North America division is currently located in Donora Industrial Park.
Apex manufactures anilox, glue set and metering products, and print maintenance solutions. Alta Vista plans call for a 100,000-square-foot-plus building, with construction to begin in mid-2019 and end in 2020.
Chris Whitlatch, MVA’s chief executive officer, said Alta Vista has 50 additional acres of pad-ready sites available for development.
“It had been quiet there for a while,” Oliva said. “They’ve had a nice little surge of activity.”
That pleases LaCarte. “It’s an exciting time in the commercial real estate market in the Mon Valley and in Washington County,” he said.