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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 3:38 p.m., Thursday, September 25, 2008

A&B buys Houston warehouse complex

Alexander & Baldwin Inc. has bought a Houston warehouse complex for an undisclosed price, the latest in a string of Mainland industrial real estate acquisitions for the Honolulu-based company.

A&B said the property, a 313,000-square-foot facility called Republic Distribution Center, was built last year near the Port of Houston's two major container terminals and is nearly 50 percent leased to a regional third-party logistics company.

A&B said it expects to benefit from anticipated future growth at the port, which it said is the nation's seventh busiest container port and second busiest based on total tonnage.

Allen Doane, A&B chairman and CEO, said the purchase extends the company's emerging investment strategy of acquiring logistics-oriented warehouse facilities in key domestic transportation nodes.

The acquisition follows recent A&B purchases of industrial facilities in Dallas and Savannah, Ga., as well as a warehousing and distribution company in the San Francisco Bay Area. Collectively, the purchases have given A&B roughly 3 million square feet of additional warehouse space in the last year.

A&B's total portfolio of commercial property comprises about 7.2 million square feet of retail, office and industrial space, including 22 properties in Hawai'i and 23 properties in eight Mainland states.