KPREIT to pump $650m into Cross Roads warehouse project
Published:Friday | October 22, 2021 | 12:08 AM
Kingston Properties Limited, or KPREIT, is adding small warehousing units to its portfolio of commercial properties.
The real estate investment company says it is going for a brick-and-mortar set-up that will provide up to 30 storage units on a 1½-acre property in the vicinity of Cross Roads, Kingston.
In a market filing this week, KPREIT said it acquired the Cross Roads property for $75 million and would utilise it to develop and “house small-bay warehouse units”.
Kingston Properties CEO Kevin Richards declined to comment on the precise location of the commercial property, citing ongoing sensitive negotiations that are “indirectly related to the acquisition”.
“There are other aspects of the deal that we want to tie up, so we’ll hold on that for now,” Richards said.
Kingston Properties is in the process of selecting professionals for the development project. The company expects to invest about $650 million to bring the development on stream and build out the warehousing units, said Richards. The units will be about 20-25 feet high, which will allow for a mezzanine level for offices or extra-level storage if unit occupants so desire, the KPREIT executive said.
“Units will cover between 2,000 to 5,000 square feet of space and, subject to approval, we hope to have 25 to 30 units,” Richards said.
Inside Jamaica, Cross Roads is fresh stomping ground for Kingston Properties. Its other holdings are located in New Kingston and the southwestern industrial belt of Kingston. Outside of Jamaica, it also holds properties in the Cayman Islands; and Atlanta, Georgia and Miami, Florida in the United States.
For the first half of the year ending June, KPREIT generated rental revenue of US$1.4 million, up 59 per cent year-on-year, from which it generated profit of US$927,202. The results reversed losses of US$343,397 in the comparative period of the prior year