When Whirlpool wanted to redeploy the capital it had tied up in an industrial asset in the Atlanta Airport South submarket, the company it turned to for help was First Industrial Realty Trust.
        The Chicago-based juggernaut in industrial real estate quickly packaged and executed a sale-leaseback transaction of a 650,000-sq.-ft. (60,385-sq.-m.) distribution facility that freed up cash and provided greater operational flexibility for Whirlpool.

James D. Carpenter, executive director of investments for First Industrial Realty Trust

        James D. Carpenter, executive director of investments for First Industrial, said the Whirlpool deal highlighted three main competitive advantages of his company: speed, service and responsiveness.
        ”Whirlpool required the operational flexibility and also the security that they could control the facility for a long period of time. So we did a three-year lease with them with the option of extending the lease,“ Carpenter said. ”We closed the deal all cash only three weeks after we had an oral agreement to acquire the building.“
        Carpenter said the Whirlpool transaction was typical for his company, which owns and manages 76 million sq. ft. (7 million sq. m.) of industrial space in the top 25 industrial markets across the United States. He oversees all of First Industrial’s acquisition, due diligence and disposition activities.
        “In order to satisfy the needs of our customers who want longer-term deals, we have about $420 million of capital available to do those types of deals,” he said. “We set up this joint venture to serve that need. But we will do both short-term deals and long-term deals anywhere in the country. We are really opportunity-driven more than market-driven. We feel that we can do a better job understanding each deal on its own merits.”
        Another case in point: a sale-leaseback of a 190,000-sq.-ft. (17,651-sq.-m.) manufacturing and painting plant for Newell Rubbermaid in Salt Lake City. Carpenter said the company “really only wanted to keep 100,000 sq. ft. [9,290 sq. m.]. We leased them back that amount of space for seven years and then leased back the remainder of the building for only nine months. That played up our competitive advantage in the sale-leaseback business.”
        Another advantage First Industrial used to close the Newell Rubbermaid deal, he said, was “the fact that we knew we could finish the transaction faster and do a better job.” First Industrial executed the entire project, from due diligence to signed contract, in about three weeks.
        “We differentiated ourselves,” Carpenter said.