Philly housing agency sells airport-area industrial site to Frankford Arsenal owner Alliance HSP

Alliance HSP, which owns much of the Frankford Arsenal complex in Bridesburg, has acquired a warehouse near Philadelphia International Airport from the city’s housing authority.

The Bryn Mawr-based investment group bought the 40,900-square-foot industrial building on 3.8 acres of land at 3440 Bartram Ave. from the Philadelphia Housing Authority for $3.63 million, commercial real estate firm CBRE said in a release on Thursday.

PHA, which had owned the property since 1990, stored equipment and vehicles there that it used to maintain its apartment units, according to CBRE, which represented the agency in the sale along with broker Vincent Jolly’s CVA Commercial Group.

“PHA sold the property in an ongoing effort to centralize operations to realize operational efficiencies, while Alliance continues to expand their industrial portfolio with this strategic acquisition,” Les Haggett, a CBRE broker who worked on the deal, said in the release.

Matt Handel, Alliance’s acquisitions director, said his company plans to market the property to “ ‘last mile’ industrial users” seeking proximity to I-95 and the airport. The term “last mile” generally describes warehouses close to population centers that serve as final way points between far-off factories and customers’ homes.

In addition to its six-building, 208,000-square-foot section of the Arsenal property, Alliance owns the site at Fifth and Spring Garden Streets that is now home to Yards Brewing Co. and a Target store.