New York-based landlord Snowball Developments is continuing its rapid expansion in Connecticut, adding another East Hartford warehouse to its growing portfolio of older industrial properties.
Snowball paid $5.95 million this month for an 81,475-square-foot warehouse at 188-200 Prestige Park Road, according to town land records. The purchase was financed with a $4.8 million mortgage from Emerald Creek Capital 4 LLC.
The 1965-vintage concrete and cinderblock warehouse, which sits on 3.4 acres, was sold by a limited liability company tied to New Jersey-based ETD Discount Tire Centers.
The current tenant, American Tire Distributors, has outgrown the space and is expected to be on the hunt for a larger property soon, Ker said. He plans to launch a marketing campaign once American Tire’s schedule is better understood.
The acquisition follows a string of recent Connecticut purchases. As of April, Snowball had acquired 13 warehouses in Connecticut and four in New Jersey totaling about 2 million square feet, Hartford Business Journal previously reported. Earlier this year, the company spent $17.45 million acquiring four industrial properties in Windsor, East Hartford and New Haven.
Founded in 2021, Snowball focuses on acquiring and refurbishing aging warehouses in secondary markets.
American Tire has done a good job with upkeep of the Prestige Park Road building, so there is little need to invest in wholesale updates, Ker said. However, Snowball may end up investing in buildouts and carving up the building into smaller portions for future tenants, he said.
Ker said the acquisition complements his company’s other northern Connecticut properties, offering potential expansion space for tenants that outgrow their existing leased locations.
“It’s a really functional warehouse for a logistics user without significant trailer parking requirements,” Ker said. “The building is easily demisable into smaller units for both small and mid-bay users. We think it’s going to have a great future in our portfolio as tenants grow and expand across our East Hartford and South Windsor cluster. So, it fits a really great role within our portfolio.”
The property was acquired off-market, according to Ker. In a social media post, he credited David Murdock of Sentry Commercial with introducing the deal and said financing was arranged by David Eyzenberg and provided by Emerald Creek Capital.
It is also adjacent to an 87,525-square-foot warehouse Snowball acquired for $5.95 million a little more than a year ago.
Snowball is continuing to pursue additional acquisitions in the greater Connecticut region, Ker said. The company is also facing an active leasing year, with up to 800,000 square feet of space across the Hartford area coming up for renewal or new leases.
That means lots of data on the market trajectory, he said.
“And the trend has been increasing rental rates due to the tight supply and fundamentals of the industrial leasing market,” Ker said. “There is a 1% effective vacancy rate for buildings over 24-foot clear (height). Part of the reason why we bought 200 Prestige Park is because it does surpass 24-foot clear.”
