Site of former Tideflats sawmill sold; redevelopment ahead
After more than a year on the market, the site of Tacoma’s former Simpson Tideflats sawmill has sold.
Industrial Property Trust of Denver has purchased the 58-acre site from Interfor of Vancouver, British Columbia, according to a news release for representatives of Cushman & Wakefield Commerce, which negotiated the sale.
Pierce County property records show the company paid $32.4 million for the parcel.
IPT plans to turn the site into its IPT Logistics Center, with redevelopment of the site for two industrial buildings.
“The sale of this property makes way for a new, approximately 1.1 million-square-foot industrial development for warehousing and manufacturing companies to come into Tacoma, create jobs and provide tremendous opportunity,” according to Tony Kusak of Cushman & Wakefield Commerce, who was the lead broker on the deal, in Wednesday’s news release.
Kusak will represent IPT in leasing the site at 733 E. 11th St. IPT buys and operates distribution warehouses leased to corporate customers.
“Given the historically low supply of Class A warehouses today and the flexibility of sizes this project will offer (60,000 square feet to over 1,100,000 square feet), we are confident in delivering another successful project to the market,” said J.R. Wetzel, managing director, Western Region Industrial Property Trust, in the release.
Redevelopment is set to be completed in the first quarter of 2018.
The lumber mill was one of four Simpson properties Interfor Corp. bought for $94.7 million in March 2015. The Tacoma mill alone, the company said in its second-quarter earnings release, was responsible for $7.7 million of Interfor’s $20.6 million net loss for that quarter.
The company shut down the mill May 22, 2015, after experiencing difficulties in making the relatively modern mill profitable, and put the site on the market in July 2015.
News Tribune archives and staff writer Kate Martin contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 7, 2016 at 12:03 PM with the headline "Site of former Tideflats sawmill sold; redevelopment ahead."