MIDDLETOWN — Jack Lingo Asset Management (JLAM) has bought a small warehouse and lumber yard leased out by Builders FirstSource for $8.04 million, signaling continued growth for the company.
JLAM is the real estate investment arm of Jack Lingo Realtor Inc., a well-known name in Rehoboth Beach property investment and management. The company’s focus has shifted over its 12 years, starting with single family homes for sale in southern Delaware. In recent years, it started tapping into the multi-family residential market and has made some acquisitions into industrial spaces as well.
The 50,000 square foot building off of Middletown-Warwick Road, sitting just a few miles south of the commercial real estate corridor along Delaware Route 71, is a strong addition to JLAM’s holdings. JLAM’s industrial portfolio is ranges up and down the East Coast while its Delaware portfolio is mostly residential, according to JLAM Principal Doug Motley.
“We’ve been looking in the Middletown market for quite some time. We’ve got a couple of irons in the fire and just are bullish on the long-term positions of that market in general,” he told the Delaware Business Times. “From a real estate perspective, we think that the light industry is very durable and stable.”
The Middletown Builders FirstSource building has also served as a distribution site for construction materials since 2008 with easy acces to highways through Maryland and northern Delaware thanks to its proximity to U.S. Route 301. It was first built in 1957 for Shone Lumber which later sold the business to BMC Holdings in 2018.
In 2021, BMC Holdings merged with Builders FirstSource, a Fortune 500 company that is the largest supplier of building products, prefabricated components and value-added services in the nation. Builders FirstSource has 570 locations in 43 states. The growing company also recently acquired the central-Delaware based Wyoming Millwork.
For JLAM, the opportunity to purchase the building occupied by Builders FirstSource was one it couldn’t pass up. Motley added that while JLAM pursues many investment strategies, some properties are just good opportunities for the firm to take on. He noted that Middletown’s explosive growth may not be on par with other markets across the country, meaning the likelihood of another investment firm looking closely at the town was unlikely.
“We see the property as a rare commodity in that it has customer-facing components with indoor warehousing and outdoor storage. That’s pretty hard to come by on 11 acres in Middletown,” Motley said. “That and the tenant and their position in the market really intrigued us.”
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the country spent $2.16 billion in construction in July, with residential construction placed at $941.6 million that month. Analysts at various financial and research companies estimate that the industry has a compound annual growth rate of 4.4% between now and 2028.
The lease on the 948 Middletown-Warwick Road building is set for 10 years and will be up for renewal in 2028.
“We expect them to be there even longer than that,” Motley said. “There’s been a lot of growth over the past 10, 15 years and when you think about real estate in a long-term lens, there’s been very strong tailwinds for that area.”
