This article was originally published on Memphis Business Journal

After buying 3.4 million square feet worth of local distribution buildings in the last four months, about one fourth of a Dallas-based investor’s 24-million-square-foot portfolio is now located in the Mid-South.

Sealy & Company started its run in early December, with a purchase of the 600,000-square-foot 555 E. Raines Road property in Memphis. Later in the month, it bought a pair of adjacent Olive Branch facilities – 11244 S. Distribution Cove and 8631 Polk Lane – totaling 1.7 million square feet. Those properties are home to Belnick Inc. and Teleflex distribution operations.

Then, in late February, it closed on a $6.8 million purchase of 500 Distribution Parkway, a 128,000-square-foot building on 10 acres in Collierville. And, March 25, it announced its $48 million purchase of the 1-million-square-foot Williams-Sonoma Inc. distribution center at 7755 Polk Lane in Olive Branch.

The run was driven by three main factors, Sealy & Company chief investment officer Scott Sealy Jr. said

• The region’s supply of cheap logistics workers
• FedEx’s Memphis presence and the impressive cargo airport that presence has brought
• A long track record and high level of trust with the company’s Memphis broker, NAI Saig Co.’s Hank Martin

“It’s been a competitive advantage… to have a local expert in our back pocket,” Sealy said. “He tends to focus on us and take our calls and think of us first.”

The Williams-Sonoma purchase – an off-market deal – was particularly attractive because of the quality of the building despite its age. Built in 2000, the facility has a large parking lot and tall clear-heights desired by modern ecommerce users.

“They were kind of visionary,” said Jason Gandy, who works on acquisitions for Sealy. “We thought there’s a pretty good chance Williams-Sonoma stays in the building long term. But, if not, we’d have a pretty special building.”

Sealy said it is unlikely the firm will make any more Mid-South purchases in the coming months because this string of purchases has made the firm’s most recent fund highly weight toward Memphis. However, he said they’ll continue to be open to opportunities in the mark.

Outside of the market – throughout the Southwest, Southeast, and Midwest – the firm is “actively evaluation and seeking” industrial properties of all sorts, Sealy said.