Ascension Advisory completed a $15 million sale leaseback of National Molding’s manufacturing facility in Largo, Florida. The property was acquired by Venture One Real Estate.
Prior to the transaction, National Molding, a portfolio company of Taglich Private Equity, leased the facility from the previous owner and held an option to purchase the property. Ascension structured the transaction so that National Molding could exercise its purchase option and simultaneously sell the property to Venture One. This allowed National Molding to capture the value between the option price and the sale leaseback valuation while continuing to operate at the facility under a new long-term lease.
National Molding is a global manufacturer of precision injection-molded plastic components serving the life sciences, commercial, automotive, defense, tactical and other end markets. The company produces more than 3.5 billion parts annually across four manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada and China.
Transaction Approach
Unlike a conventional sale leaseback involving company-owned real estate, National Molding did not own the facility at the outset of the process. Ascension evaluated the economics of the company’s purchase option and structured the purchase and sale leaseback as a coordinated transaction, allowing National Molding to acquire and resell the property simultaneously without holding the real estate on a long-term basis.
The 103k square-foot facility has supported National Molding’s operations since it was built in 2001 and houses the company’s Tactical and Life Sciences divisions.
Ascension’s investor outreach emphasized the facility’s mission-critical role within National Molding’s operations, the specialized infrastructure and customer qualifications that would make the operation difficult to replicate, and the strength of National Molding and its sponsorship. The transaction resulted in a new long-term absolute NNN lease, allowing National Molding to maintain uninterrupted control of the facility while generating additional liquidity.
Outcome
The simultaneous exercise of the purchase option and $15 million sale leaseback allowed National Molding to realize the value embedded in its purchase option. The spread between the option price and the sale price generated incremental proceeds that the company can reinvest in its operations and broader growth initiatives.
For Venture One, the transaction provided a specialized Tampa Bay manufacturing asset occupied by a long-standing tenant and backed by National Molding’s robust operating platform.
The transaction highlights Ascension Advisory’s ability to structure sale leasebacks around existing purchase options, helping companies unlock value from real estate they do not yet own while preserving long-term operational continuity.