Serving Indiana Since 1975
Company News, Local News // December 20, 2019

$100 Million in Sales & Leases

Sturges Property Group’s Brokerage Team is made up of 12 Brokers and support staff whose skills and backgrounds all come together to make one group of commercial real estate experts. Our real estate brokers have expertise in areas that range from commercial loans to property management and property investment. This knowledge, proficiency, and dedication to a team atmosphere are brought out in our work with clients daily.

This year has turned out to be one of our biggest years yet, so we asked our brokers to share their favorite success stories in 2019. You can see what they had to say below.

 


Barry Sturges, CEO

Lincoln National Life Corporate Headquarters Campus

1303 S Harrison St & surrounding buildings, Fort Wayne, IN

Office Investment Sale

1,967,877 SF

Lincoln National Life HQ Campus, 1303 S Harrison St, Fort Wayne, IN 46802This NNN-Leased building campus located in downtown Fort Wayne encompasses multiple parcels, surface parking lots, and a parking garage. The Tenant has occupied the building for nearly a century and has been a pillar in the Fort Wayne business community. Working with CBRE Brokers out of Indianapolis proved a winning partnership, as we were able to secure 8 competing offers from investors all over the country. The eventual buyer was a local development group, and the final price positions this real estate sale as one of the biggest transactions in Sturges' history.

 


John Caffray, VP of Brokerage

Huntington Distribution Center

1515 Riverfork Drive, Huntington, IN

Industrial Sale

409,280 SF

Huntington Distribution Center, 1515 Riverfork Dr, Huntingotn, IN

This former home of a Stride Rite Shoes distribution center is over 400,000 SF, has a 24’-35’ ceiling height, and is equipped with 42 dock doors with plenty of room for more. Because this was the only one of its size and quality in the area, we had multiple interested parties. The lucky buyer was Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems. They have a large presence in the Huntington market and needed a large building to create new product lines. They turned this building from a distribution center into a manufacturing facility and will commence operation in the new facility in early 2020.

 


Brad Sturges, President

Park 3000

3000 E Coliseum Blvd, Fort Wayne, IN

Office Sale

76,175 SF

Sturges Property Group - Park 3000 Campus, 3000 E Coliseum Blvd, Fort Wayne, INPark 3000 was a challenging project due to its overall size and the specialty use that it had been converted into by the previous Tenant. With large footprint floors over 22,000 SF, each filled with classrooms and specialty labs, the challenge was to find a user that could benefit from those improvements. With numerous other vacant former colleges, we knew the list of prospects would be small. Fortunately, our sales team was able to find two great prospects, and Purdue Fort Wayne jumped on the opportunity. From there, getting a State University through a large acquisition has its own set of challenges, but we were able to be creative and got the deal to close in July 2019.

 


Bill Cupp, Senior Broker

Millersburg Industrial Building

230 Wabash St, Millersburg, IN

Industrial Sale

189,684 SF

Millersburg Industrial Building, 230 Wabash St, Millersburg, INLocated in the heart of Indiana’s RV and mobile home manufacturing country, this 190,000 SF industrial property has a main building with a large mezzanine and three supporting buildings. We had recently helped the Seller, Inteplast Group, purchase a 350,000 SF building in Remington, IN, as this one did not fit their needs any longer. Our client needed to find the right buyer at the right price, and we were able to attract a surplus industrial equipment company that purchased this Millersburg property for their operations.

 


Andrew Eckert, Broker

Sportsman’s Cove

15214 Tonkel Rd, Fort Wayne, IN

Retail/Commercial Sale & Leaseback

8,199 SF

Sportsman's Cove, 15214 Tonkel Road, Fort Wayne, INSometimes a successful deal isn’t measured by the size of the building or the total sale price. For this fishing and outdoors store, the owner needed help not only finding a buyer, but also surveying/parceling off a portion of the land, passing an environmental risk assessment, obtaining a variance approval from Allen County for the new owner’s use, and negotiating a 4-year lease-back in which the sellers became the tenants of the new owner. We were able to go above and beyond for this client through some complicated real estate situations.

 


Neal Bowman, SIOR, Senior Broker

Jefferson Pointe Retail Outlots

1727 Apple Glen Blvd & 4541 Illinois Rd, Fort Wayne, IN

Retail/Commercial Lease & Sale

7,306 SF (combined)

Jefferson Pointe Outlots, 1727 Apple Glen Blvd & 4541 Illinois Rd, Fort Wayne, IN

The disposition of restaurants in Fort Wayne is generally not a walk in the park. Despite this, we were able to quickly find a buyer for the old Burger King on Apple Glen Blvd. (soon to be a Hardee’s/Subway). Additionally, just around the corner from there, we successfully converted the former Tilted Kilt with a multi-tenant makeover. Xfinity (Comcast Cable) has been the first to take a chance on this highly visible retail property in southwest Fort Wayne, with their 4,200 square foot 10-year retail lease.

 


Robert Doyle, Broker

E & B Paving

6010 Brandy Chase Cove, Fort Wayne

Office Lease

754 SF

Georgetown Professional Park, 6010 Brandy Chase Cove, Fort Wayne, INThis lease for an INDOT contractor in Georgetown Professional Park was a big success solely because of how fast it moved. The client needed space overnight, which is a very rare find in the commercial real estate world. The original request for information was Thursday before Labor Day weekend, and we were able to get an executed Lease delivered the next day. In addition, we were able to allow them to move their equipment into the space over the holiday weekend. We helped the client find a space that was perfectly suited for their purposes, in the right location, within their budget constraints, and available immediately which coincided with their accelerated timetable.


Brady Gardner, Broker

Midwestern Office Park

7221 & 7223 Engle Rd, Fort Wayne

Office Leasing

15,720 SF (combined)

A new owner bought this 47,300 SF 2-building office property back in 2018, and we retained the leasing and management. Having a history and knowledge of the property dating back many years, as well as the best property management team in Fort Wayne, helped us place an impressive FIVE new tenants into the building over the course of the year. By the end of 2019, this property will be 97% occupied with only one small suite remaining.

 


A Great Year for Commercial Real Estate

Among our Brokerage Team, Sturges Property Group has reached over $100 million in sales and leases in Northeast Indiana in 2019 alone. This year's sales and leases have brought many businesses to Northeast Indiana as well as helped existing businesses to grow. Our proven track record of success that's listed above is just the start when it comes to our list of transactions this year.

“The fact that all of these transactions happened right here in Northeast Indiana shows the confidence of businesses to expand and grow and for investors to put their money here in the Fort Wayne market.”

Brad Sturges, President

Sturges Property Group’s team model for Brokerage has been a major contributing factor to our success in 2019. Brad Sturges added, “The daily collaboration among our Brokers has allowed us to hit this notable volume of transactions for such a small team, and we are expecting to finish strong with more than $110 million in transaction value.”

If you are looking to become one of our success stories in 2020, call or email our commercial real estate experts today and see what we can do for you!

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