The Biggest Deal

Amid a tough market and a high-pressure timeline, Landon Williams, CCIM, and Mark Jenkins, CCIM, of Cushman & Wakefield Commercial Advisors, represented a seller in a $63 million transaction. Their client, Reynolds, sold a 787,000-sf industrial property.

Located at 5106 Tradeport Drive in Memphis, AAON, Inc., an HVAC manufacturer, purchased the tobacco manufacturing facility. As reported in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, AAON declared that the new hub would add 828 new jobs with an average wage of $57,232.

Closing the deal involved creativity along the way.

“The biggest challenge was the timing. We were trying to sell this in a very uncertain market, not only locally, but even nationally and globally.” Williams said. “Everything was a bit frozen from the capital markets standpoint.”

In 2023, when the site went on the market, most buyers were more focused on acquiring distribution facilities as opposed to manufacturing sites. Additionally, Williams and Jenkins also faced hurdles due to interest rate hikes and market slowdowns.

Williams credits The CCIM Institute education in helping him secure these types of transactions where creativity is essential. He shared how his CCIM education came into play for structuring financial analysis, IRR calculations, and evaluating creative financing solutions.

“Before we identified the eventual user buyer, knowing that we were trying to hit a certain timeline to get this deal sold, we decided to take the deal to the capital markets with a creative structure to meet the market,” Williams added. “My CCIM education played a huge role in the whole strategy, every part of it.”