KKR Pays $80M for 210K sf Logistics Warehouse in Fremont

KKR has picked up a 209,700-square-foot logistics warehouse in Fremont for $79.5 million.

The New York-based private equity giant bought the industrial building known as Frontier Elm Business Center at 47020 Kato Road, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

The seller was Link Logistics, based in New York. The deal works out to $379 per square foot.

The building is occupied by RK Logistics Group, which claims to be the largest lithium battery distributor in the state. The locally based firm pre-leased the property in July, while it was under construction. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The region has become an industrial hub for such firms as Tesla, Boston Scientific, Delta Electronics and Seagate.

The industrial market, which boomed during the pandemic, has cooled. But rapid development of warehouses has created a wider range of options for tenants, according to the Business Times.

Along the East Bay, industrial vacancy was 5.9 percent in the second quarter, from 4.9 percent in the prior period, according to CBRE. In Fremont, industrial vacancy was 3.8 percent.

Net absorption across the region, which measures space leased minus space vacated, hit negative 1.3 million square feet in the first quarter, down from 419,000 square feet a year earlier.

— Dana Bartholomew