A New England real estate investment company has paid nearly a quarter of a billion dollars to buy a portfolio of 19 industrial properties across the Midwest and Southeast United States.

Exeter Property Group, based in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., purchased the 6.0 million sq. ft. portfolio for $240 million. That’s according to Jones Lang LaSalle, which represented the seller, Pinchal & Co., a privately held real estate investment company based in Houston. Jones Lang LaSalle marketed the portfolio in partnership with American National Insurance Co. (ANICO) and ANICO subsidiary ANTAC.

John Huguenard, managing director and national head of industrial capital markets at Jones Lang LaSalle, led the marketing team along with Jones Lang LaSalle’s Peter Harwood, Garry Weiss and Sean Devaney.

“John and his Jones Lang LaSalle team did a phenomenal job securing interest from more than 100 investors for this portfolio,” Mace Pinchal, principal and founder of Pinchal & Co., said in a July 7 announcement from Jones Lang LaSalle.

The portfolio is more than 98% occupied and is comprised of 27 high-quality tenants, a majority of which are publicly traded or credit-rated companies. The average remaining lease term is 5.8 years.

The offering drew a great deal of interest from investors all over the globe, according to Huguenard. “Right now, the industrial sector is one of the hottest property types on the market and we expect that interest to remain high as transaction levels are set to double in 2011 compared to 2010.”

Tim Weber, CFO and managing principal of Exeter, was pleased with the transaction. “Our partner/investors, who are amongst the largest and most sophisticated pension funds, endowments and insurance companies from around the world, look to us to create market diverse, high product and tenant quality portfolios that meet their value-add return requirements,” he says. “This portfolio presented by Pinchal & Co. and Jones Lang LaSalle has significantly assisted us in meeting our partner’s objectives.”

In 2010, Jones Lang LaSalle Capital Markets completed $43 billion in investment sale and debt and equity transactions globally.