After being acquired by a category giant, this client needed to dispose of a 91,845 S.F. redundant warehouse facility in Allentown, Pennyslvania. Soft market conditions made the sale of this special-use warehouse building more challenging, coupled by the existence of a 24,260 S.F. by 80-foot high-rise component built around a customized automated storage/retrieval system (AS/RS). This system represented a multi-million dollar investment by the user in 1987.

As their national corporate real estate advisor, NRES collaborated with the client on a proactive disposition strategy, which included identifying Cushman & Wakefield of Pennsylvania to market the property. NRES undertook an extensive study analyzing the labor savings and space efficiency of the AS/RS system and generated easy-to-understand marketing materials that demonstrated how the additional productivity of the automated system translated into conventional square footage.

A concerted targeting of users in the pharmaceutical, record storage and other industries that were likely users of the automated system hit its mark when NRES identified an eastern regional pharmaceutical packaging firm. They saw significant value in the AS/RS system which we were able to translate into the negotiated purchase price for the facility. The sale realized approximately $1 million over the street value of the property.