Manufacturing/Warehouse Disposition
Bestform/Vanity Fair
Bestform/Vanity Fair occupied four facilities in the greater Johnstown, Pennsylvania market as both owners and tenants. Their manufacturing plants included 80,000 square feet in downtown Johnstown and another 90,000 square feet in neighboring Windber, PA. Both were long term master leases. They owned two warehousing/distribution facilities, one 160,000 square feet in Sidman, PA and the second 217,000 square feet in the Johnston Industrial Park.
Bestform/Vanity Fair made the corporate decision to move all manufacturing to Mexico, leaving long term master leases on the two manufacturing plants and approximately 380,000 square feet of owned warehouse/distribution space vacant.
Based in Greensboro, North Carolina, Bestform/Vanity Fair had an ongoing relationship with Langholz Wilson Ellis’s Corfac affiliate Guilford Realty. After meeting with Guilford Realty and Bestform, Langholz Wilson Ellis was hired for the disposition of the warehousing/distribution facility and to find sub-lease tenants for the manufacturing plants. After an extensive market analysis, it was determined that the owned warehousing facilities were strategically placed and could be subdivided into multi-tenant properties and would be best marketed as such. The manufacturing plants were best suited as redevelopment sites, and we would work closely with the owner to sell the plants thus relieving our client of their long term lease obligation. In just over 12 months, Langholz Wilson Ellis’s marketing efforts produced buyers for all four (4) properties.
The marketing plan implemented by Langholz Wilson Ellis not only successfully released Bestform/Vanity Fair from any further long term lease obligations, it sold the assets of the owner who was an absentee owner living in New York. They additionally removed the warehouse/distribution assets off the books of Bestform/Vanity Fair and made available a total of 547,000 square feet in the greater Johnstown market. The vacancies were tenanted fully within 18 months by the developers who purchased the properties.
