The 12 assets contributed by Prologis have been appraised at approximately JPY 173 billion ($2 billion). Mainly comprising properties located in Tokyo and Osaka, the newly establish portfolio totals 9.6 million square feet (890,000 square meters), the weighted average age being of 3.4 years.

NPR has already been approved for listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The real estate investment trusts will serve as a long-term investment vehicle for modern logistics facilities.

As part of NPR’s efforts to expand its portfolio, the trust already has exclusive negotiation rights for another eight properties owned by Prologis. Through the sponsor support agreement, Prologis will also provide pipeline, operational and personnel assistance. Moreover, Prologis’ wholly owned subsidiaries will act as NPR’s property and asset managers.

Although the sponsorship is a great opportunity for the US-based Prologis, it not intended as a securities sales offer in the United States, as securities may not be offered or sold in the United States unless they are registered or exempt from registration. Yet the high-profile player in the industrial real estate market comes with valuable expertise which will benefit NPR. Focusing on global and regional markets across the Americas, Europe and Asia, Prologis currently owns or has invested in properties and development projects from 21 countries which will amount, upon completion,  to about 565 million square feet (52.5 million square meters).

This is the second largest commercial real estate deal in the history of Sacramento, outranked by a transaction closed back in 2007 when Wells Farago Center and other office properties, valued at $760 million. The deal is also the largest in industrial real estate closed this year in California and the second-biggest in the USA, according to Mark Demetre of Jones Lang Lasalle, who helped broker it.

Demetre, as well as other commercial real estate experts, see this massive acquisition of warehouses and other industrial properties as proof of investor’s faith in Sacramento’s commercial property market as a long-term investment. It also marks a significant ownership transfer from a small group of local developers to outside investors, backed by a large infusion of Wall Street money.

Westcore President and CEO Don Ankeny expressed his company’s eagerness to continue the plans drawn up by Benvenuti, who passed away earlier this year.

“Joe was a legendary guy in your marketplace,” Ankeny said. “The opportunity to step into the shoes of his lifetime’s work doesn’t come along very often. When we got wind of that opportunity, we jumped on it.”

After Benvenuti’s death, his heirs made a decision to sell most of his assets.

“It was basically a family decision. My dad passed away a few months ago and my mom a couple of years ago,” said Richard Benvenuti, the late developer’s son.

This major deal included most on Benvenuti’s 13 million square feet commercial real estate holdings. About half of the properties Westcore aquired are located in North Natomas, along North Market Boulevard and Del Paso Road. The other properties are in West Sacramento, Rancho Cordova and Placer County. The Midwest properties included in the deal are mostly made up of distribution centers, light industrial buildings and office buildings from St Louis and Indianapolis.