We are pleased to announce Samuel Asfahl has been promoted to Finance and Capital Markets Analyst. He first joined Meritex a little over a year ago as a Senior Corporate Accountant.

In his new role, Sam will work with the finance team, assisting with lender compliance and investor relation functions.

“Sam has shown tremendous potential during his time at Meritex,” says Mark Scheierl, Manager of Finance and Capital Markets. “We know he’ll excel in his new role, and we’re excited to add his strategic analysis and modeling skills to the capital markets team.”

Sam began his career as an audit intern with US Bank in 2016. He then joined Ernst & Young where he worked a tax accountant for more than two years. Immediately prior to joining Meritex, Sam spent a year at Direct Travel working as a staff accountant.

The Meritex Company (“Meritex”) recently acquired four Class A shallow-bay industrial buildings in the Phoenix area, totaling 222,671 square feet. Together, the properties bring the Meritex total footprint in the Phoenix metro area to 835,245 sq. ft.

“These shallow-bay properties are well-located within the Phoenix Metro with superior access to major highways and near a large population base that ultimately benefits our tenants and users,” says Matt Wagner, Senior Director of Acquisitions at Meritex. “Each building is well-designed to stand the test of time and offer tremendous flexibility on leasing allowing for expansion or contraction to existing tenants in a very efficient way.”

Tempe Commerce Center located at 6955 and 6965 South Priest Drive in Tempe, Arizona is comprised of two buildings totaling 108,109 square feet and 100% occupied with six tenants. Meritex Cotton Center located at 4215 and 4219 East Broadway Road in Phoenix, Arizona, is comprised of two buildings totaling 114,562 square feet and are 100% occupied with ten tenants.

“Phoenix continues to be a strong industrial real estate market with demand outpacing supply, vacancies remaining low and solid population and GDP growth potential,” says Ray Kivett, Chief Investment Officer at Meritex. “We see tremendous potential in the market, and plan to continue expanding in the area for the foreseeable future.”

Meritex has selected Metro Commercial Properties to provide property management services for the newly acquired properties.

The Meritex Company has completed construction on Cedars Business Center II, a commercial property that adds 78,400 square feet of industrial real estate to the area. The building was completed this fall, and has already been fully leased by the Goodwin Company, a family-owned and operated bulk liquid packaging and blend company, to store and distribute customer products.

Cedars II features a clear height of 24 feet, forty 50-foot x 40-foot bays, 30 dock high doors and one drive in ramp, 103 parking spaces, a shared 200-foot truck court with a 55-foot concrete apron, ESFR sprinklers, and LED lighting.

“We’re seeing strong demand for industrial real estate space both in Atlanta, and throughout the country,” says Dan Ward, regional manager for Meritex in Atlanta. “In a recent survey of our tenants, we found that 92 percent need either the same or increased warehouse space now and for the foreseeable future. We plan to continue to expand in the Atlanta market to meet this demand.”

The building site is located at 1190 Progress Industrial Blvd., within the Gwinnett Progress Center in Lawrenceville, Georgia, and a short drive from both GA 316 and I-85.

The completion of Cedars Business Center II adds to Meritex’ impressive 1,463,474 square feet of multi-tenant industrial space in the Atlanta marketplace.

Meritex has begun redevelopment of Parkers Lake, a recently acquired 474,669 square foot infill industrial portfolio in Plymouth, Minnesota. The company will invest significant capital into the project to modernize and enhance the buildings to attract local, regional, and international companies to the park.

“We’re dedicated to transforming this project into a best-in-class business park,” says Matt Wagner, Senior Director of Investments. “We feel Parkers Lake Commerce Center can capitalize on the need for high clear height warehouse space in this market and are excited to bring it to fruition.”

The first phase of the redevelopment will focus on adding modern amenities similar to today’s industrial construction design standards and will include new storefront entrances and façade, new ballasted EPDM roof system, 32’ clear height, LED lighting with motion sensors, clerestory windows, ESFR sprinkler system, new concrete truck court with 24 additional dock-high doors, two drive-in doors, additional parking, new landscaping, and trailer parking.

“Parkers Lake was well received in the market from the onset,” says Ben Lieser, Regional Manager. “We’ve had numerous showings with tenants ranging in size from 60,000 square feet to full building users, along with multiple requests for proposals.”

Construction is scheduled to be completed by early 2022.

Excellent companies are defined by their creativity and responsiveness, whether they are handling day-to-day business or adapting to unprecedented times. It’s what helps companies stand the test of time and become leaders in their industries.

Leader Promotions (Leaderpromos) - a promotional marketing agency that delivers custom products that promote top-of-mind brand awareness - shows their creativity and responsiveness on a daily basis. The company was founded a quarter century ago to fill a key need identified by founder Stephanie Leader. From humble beginnings selling t-shirts to Greek life at Ohio State, the company has grown into the largest, wholly woman-owned promotional products agency in the country. Now, customers can expect a responsive, customized experience to help make their vision a reality.

That responsiveness and adaptability was demonstrated over the past year as the company pivoted to address COVID-19. Leaderpromos quickly rearranged their business model, adding manufacturing capabilities, and utilizing their supply chain to import PPE for the community. Even the basic bread and butter of the company – promotional kits for companies – required change. Due to COVID-19, there were no more conferences or large corporate gatherings. Instead, businesses looked for ways to connect with employees they were no longer seeing in person, leading to requests for kits to be mailed to employee’s homes. Leaderpromos became a single-source solution for many looking to engage employees in the new virtual-only environment since the agency possesses the latest technology and resources to activate brands.

Even the types of products companies were looking for changed in 2020. Instead of t-shirts or hats, companies wanted branded hand sanitizer. Leaderpromos responded to the demand by directly sourcing industrial sized sanitizer and investing in label machines. Setting up a mini-manufacturing space allowed them to deliver 10,000 units a day with custom labels, making them unique to a client’s brand.

Clearly Leaderpromos knows a thing or two about being adaptable and responsive. Well before COVID-19 struck, it was exactly those traits that led them to choose a Meritex warehouse as their base of operations.

“Meritex allowed us to make changes to the space and helped us create our vision,” says Joe Rezabek, president of Leaderpromos. “They were very consultative and we had a lot of great dialogue. They were especially great when things went wrong. For example, we had some water leaking into our space, and that same day someone was on the roof to deal with it. Things happen, and it’s how you respond to it that matters. Their response has always been spot-on.”

Leaderpromos currently occupies 24,000 sq. ft. in Columbus, Ohio, and is actively looking for more space within their current building or nearby.

“We’re strategically working with Meritex to find additional space with them because we trust them as a partner,” adds Rezabek. “We thought about buying our own space, but it’s not a core competency for us. We’d rather pay for the space AND the services from Meritex.”

Meritex recently acquired a 474,669 square foot infill industrial portfolio located in the western metro of Minneapolis at 14600 21st Avenue North in Plymouth, Minnesota. With plans for a major redevelopment this summer, Meritex intends to invest significant capital into the project to modernize and enhance the image of the buildings while simultaneously initiating a rebranding and marketing campaign to attract local, regional, and international companies to the park.

“We are very excited to expand into the west metro of Minneapolis and look forward to transforming this project into a best-in-class business park,” says Matt Wagner, Senior Director of Investments.

The industrial development will be completed in multiple phases with construction starting immediately for a portion of the site that is currently unoccupied. Meritex is naming the project Parkers Lake Commerce Center.

“We plan to continue pursuit of excellent well-located industrial properties and land sites similar to this project in Minneapolis and nationally,” adds Wagner.

Parkers Lake Commerce Center was formerly the North American headquarters for Nilfisk International until they relocated years ago. The existing project consists of three interconnected buildings totaling 474,669 square-feet. Meritex will begin construction in the coming months with the first phase of the redevelopment, consisting of approximately 216,275 square feet. The state-of-the-art redevelopment will feature modern amenities similar to today’s industrial construction design standards and will include new storefront entrances and façade, new ballasted EPDM roof system, 32’ clear height, LED lighting with motion sensors, clerestory windows, ESFR sprinkler system, new concrete truck court with 24 additional dock-high doors, two drive-in doors, additional parking, new landscaping, and trailer parking. The first phase of the construction is expected to be completed and available for occupancy by late 2021. Future phases are tentatively scheduled within the next few years.

“The portfolio is strategically located in the Northwest submarket and surrounded by amenities, Fortune 500 companies, labor, housing, public transportation, and provides immediate access to major transportation nodes such as I-494, I-394, I-94, and Highway 55,” says Ben Lieser, Regional Manager at Meritex. “We feel Parkers Lake Commerce Center can capitalize on the need for high clear height warehouse space in this market. Over the past couple of years high clear distribution vacancy rates in Plymouth have been sub five percent.”

Transwestern and Ten-X assisted in the sale process. Meritex will manage the portfolio and has selected Brent Masica and Jason Meyer of Cushman & Wakefield for leasing services. The design team consists of Pope Architects, BKBM Engineers, and Innovative Structural Solutions.