Warburg-Backed Qube Sells Greater Seoul Warehouses to Blackstone

A year and a half after being established to take advantage of rising demand for investment-grade logistics assets in South Korea, Warburg Pincus-backed Qube Industrial has sold a pair of Greater Seoul warehouses to Blackstone for an undisclosed sum.

Qube sold the Gimpo Gochon and Namyangju Hwado logistics centres, which combined measure approximately 120,774 square metres (1.2 million square feet), to a Blackstone fund, with the company’s senior leadership pointing to the recently closed disposal as representative of both its abilities as an asset manager and of the evolution of Korea’s industrial real estate market.

“This transaction demonstrates our ability to create and realize value for our investors through targeted tenant repositioning, operational enhancements, and active asset management,” said Qube Industrial co-founder and CEO James Lim. “It also validates our conviction in South Korea’s logistics sector, which is evolving from a traditionally developer-led market into one that increasingly values institutional quality and platform scale.” 

A source familiar with the discussions indicated that Blackstone paid an average of approximately KRW 2.72 million ($1,964) per square metre for the facilities, which would bring the total price tag for the transaction to around KRW 329 billion, or about $238 million. The deal takes place as a post-Covid dropoff in construction of new logistics facilities sees investors both foreign and domestic betting that rising e-commerce demand will soon bring down vacancy in the sector and boost rents. 

Divestment in 18 Months

Qube, which was established as a joint venture between Korea’s MQ Group and Warburg Pincus in December 2023, had acquired the pair of warehouses as part of the JV’s seed portfolio with the company undertaking a new leasing strategy, improved operations and active asset management to enhance the value of the properties. 

Completed in November 2013, the Gimpo Gochon facility, is a 78,317 square metre last-mile distribution hub located within the Gimpo logistics corridor on the outskirts of Seoul. The Namyangju Hwado facility, which was completed in February 2020, is a 49,291 square metre ambient logistics asset which has now achieved 100 percent occupancy, Mingtiandi understands.

“This is a continuation of our commitment to investing in prime Korean assets in fast-growing sectors. Logistics is one of our highest conviction investment themes in real estate globally and a focus for us in South Korea, particularly in the Seoul Metropolitan Area where last-mile new supply remains extremely limited and vacancy for such assets is at a low 4 percent range,” Chris Kim, head of Blackstone Real Estate for Korea, said in a statement.

Qube was formed at a time when many investors were backing away from a Korean logistics market facing rising vacancy following a surge in new project completions which saw 7.9 million square metres of new supply pushed into the market in 2023.

With online shopping having averaged double-digit growth each year since 2020, and new warehouse supply expected to average just 2.5 million square metres annually in 2025 and 2026, investors have rushed back into South Korea’s logistics market, with trades of warehouse properties in the country jumping 51 percent last year to $5 billion, according to MSCI.

With the market heating up, Qube has continued to grow its portfolio in March, acquiring a 34,216 facility in the Gyeonggi provincial city of Anseong, south of Seoul for an undisclosed sum. That deal came four months after the company picked up a 42,853 square metre (461,266 square foot) warehouse in the city of Pyeongtaek, also in Gyeonggi province.

Blackstone Expands in Korea Logistics

For Blackstone the deal with Qube marks its second Korean logistics acquisition in the past nine months as the world’s largest real estate fund manager expands a Korean last mile logistics strategy.

The first installment under that strategy came in October last year when Blackstone teamed up with Seoul-based Pebblestone Asset Management to acquire the Gimpo Seonggwang Logistics Center outside of the capital from DWS for KRW 83.5 billion ($60.4 million).

Having established a dedicated Korea real estate team three years ago, Blackstone has also been active in the country’s commercial market, working with local asset manager Blue Cove Investment to acquire an office building in Seoul’s Gangnam business district in October for KRW 120 billion ($86 million), reportedly with plans to convert the tower into a hotel.

In March last year Blackstone sold the Arc Place office tower in Seoul to local fund manager Koramco for just over KRW 792 billion ($588 million).