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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowReal estate investment trust Prologis Inc. on Oct. 3 closed on its acquisition of Duke Realty Corp. in an all-stock deal valued at $23 billion.
The acquisition of one of Indianapolis’ largest public companies came after months-long negotiations between Duke and San Francisco-based Prologis and broadens the firm’s logistics and industrial holdings in key locations, including Southern California, New Jersey, South Florida, Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta.
The company plans to retain about 94% of the Duke Realty Corp. assets—totaling 142 million square feet—including 14.7 million square feet in the Indianapolis market alone. Duke’s local properties accounted for roughly $42.4 million in net operating income annually.
The blockbuster acquisition also gives Prologis access to more than 550 Duke customers, as well as 1,200 acres of undeveloped land owned or controlled by Duke, with a buildout potential for 17 million square feet.
Duke Realty Corp. was founded in
Indianapolis in 1972 by John Rosebrough, Phil Duke and John Wynne. It went public in 1993 with an initial public offering that raised
$310 million.
Duke was the 11th-largest public company in the Indianapolis area in 2020, according to IBJ research, with nearly $1 billion in revenue. Duke had 160 million rentable square feet of industrial assets in 19 logistics markets throughout the United States at the time the acquisition closed.
Prologis is one of the world’s largest real estate investment trusts, with ownership or investments in properties and development projects totaling 1 billion square feet in 19 countries, and a customer base of 5,800.
About 40 Duke employees joined Prologis following the acquisition; 172 full-time employees were based in Indiana.
Prologis announced its first offer of $24 billion for Duke in early May, but Duke rejected it as “insufficient.”
Duke recently moved its headquarters from Carmel to a $28 million office building developed in the Keystone at the Crossing area on the site that formerly housed Champps restaurant. Duke co-owns the four-story, 78,000-square-foot building with Indianapolis-based PK Partners LLC.
Prologis is expected to begin looking for buyers interested in the building early next year.•
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