Industrial Influencers
As always, our selections are not based on sheer numbers—who closed the most deals, for example, or racked up the highest deal volume. Rather, we look for the people, teams and organizations that have that skill and expertise and who made a mark in the past twelve months in this category.
Even during a pandemic the industrial asset class continues to fare well. It would seem, to the uninitiated, that navigating this space was an easy task with every market and industry asset type ripe with opportunity. While fundamentals are robust for the industrial category, spotting a new opportunity, building a new market and finding the right tenant for a product in that market requires skill and expertise.
As always, our selections are not based on sheer numbers—who closed the most deals, for example, or racked up the highest deal volume. Rather, we look for the people, teams and organizations that have that skill and expertise and who made a mark in the past twelve months in this category. With that in mind, we present to you our picks for this year’s industrial influencers.
INDIVIDUALS
To date, the company has $200 million in assets and expects to acquire an additional $100 million in 2020. This activity has caught the attention of institutional players, including JP Morgan and Brookfield, which have entered the market niche. Barbera and IOV, however, are considered pioneers in the asset class.
IOV is the most recent of Barbera’s successes—but not the first. He had a long, successful career as an industrial broker, earning several top-sales accolades. He was named the Trammell Crow’s top industrial broker in 1999, a finalist for Greater Chicago Food Depository’s industrial broker of the year award in 2004, and NAIOP Industrial Investment Deal of the Year in 2005. He is a member of AIRE.
Brennan’s eponymous Brennan Investment Group, develops, owns and operates industrial properties in major metros throughout the US. Since 2010, the company has acquired $4 billion in industrial assets in 4,000 properties totaling 44 million square feet. The company has a diversified portfolio of investment properties, and by co-investing with private and institutional capital, is able to deliver strong risk-adjusted returns.
With these investment results, it is no surprise that Brennan is considered a trailblazer in the industrial sector. He appears on CNBC, CNNfn and Bloomberg Television and as an expert at national conferences. He contributed to The Guide to Classifying Industrial Property Types, a review of the evolution of the industrial sector and emerging property types, and he is a member of ULI and the World Presidents’ Organization.
When he isn’t busy closing deals, Brennan serves as executive director of the University of Wisconsin’s James A. Graaskamp Center
for Real Estate, a globally recognized top real estate program, and as a member of the board of the technical committee for FIBRA Macquarie, a publicly traded company. He is also involved in his local Chicago community, serving on the board of directors of the Chicago Public Library Foundation, providing funding for book collections, book acquisition and a variety of community-based programs.
He has a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Notre Dame.
Innovo continues to innovate new industrial concepts in 2020. The firm formed a partnership with Square Mile Capital Management and secured $305 million in construction financing to build a multi-story industrial facility at 2505 Bruckner in the Bronx. The property will be the first multi-level industrial facility on the East Coast. The innovative project will help to reimagine the current model for industrial in the US amid severe supply constraints in major markets.
Prior to launching Innovo, Chung spent 10 years at the Carlyle Group as head of the New York office, overseeing several transactions across asset classes. Today, he oversees all aspects of the financial, leasing, investing, capital and operations for Innovo, operating in all five boroughs.
Chung is regularly quoted in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He is on the advisory board for NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate, the Long Island City Partnership, Urban Land Institute New York and Queens Community House, and he is a member of the Council of Korean Americans. He was named a Real Estate Forum Industrial Influencer in 2019, and was named on the Power 100: The Most Powerful People in New York City list from 2009 to 2014.
Condon is a member of NAIOP, SIOR and the Washington State Commercial Realtors Association, and he is active in the Rotary Club of Seattle and Northwest Next Leaders Council organizations. His leadership abilities and career success has been featured in Teams Built to Dominate by Rod Santomassimo, and he is currently co-authoring a book, Exceeding Your Expectations: An Executive’s Guide to Finding the Right Commercial Brokerage Team and How to Avoid a Real Estate Disaster. Never resting on his laurels, last year he launched the industry’s first industrial-focused podcast, Industrial Advisors.
Outside of the office, Condon serves as a board member for his alma mater, Whitworth University’s Global School of Commerce and is the parish finance counsel chair for Our Lady of Fatima. He coaches local basketball and baseball youth teams and is a board member for Magnolia Little League.
In the last three years, Dobrott has developed six industrial properties in four states, in addition to securing new land sites and sales and lease transactions. Under Dobrott’s leadership, the company has expanded its portfolio of speculative and build-to-suit industrial and office projects for Fortune 50 and Fortune 500 companies. He has curated an office culture and mission for his team that aligns with growth goals and invites team members to accomplish those goals.
Last year, Dobrott was president of NAIOP’s Inland Empire Chapter, where he was actively involved in the organization’s legislative affairs committee to work on important legislation impacting the industrial industry. He is a board member for NAIOP’s SoCal Chapter and is a member of the Urban Land Institute and the US Green Building Council. He is also focused on encouraging and mentoring colleagues and younger development professionals looking for tools to advance their careers.
As a real estate specialist, he works alongside developers to advise on commercial park projects, like Southlinks Commons of Bonita. The project is a 26-acre, mixed-use commercial park with 260,000 square feet of dock-high warehouse and grade-level flex units. These types of projects have helped to highlight the Southwest Florida industrial market and to attract demand.
Doyle is a member of CCIM and ICSC and is a former candidate for the Fort Myers City Council Ward 4.
International Corporate Park is the crown jewel in his long history of building class-A properties. In 1993, he purchased 300 acres on the outskirts of Miami and created a flagship property for international tenants, including Dole and FedEx. At the time, there were few developments in the area. Today, it is a highly sought-after industrial submarket with few remaining development opportunities.
In 2019, Easton refinanced the company’s 4.5 million-square-foot portfolio to decrease operating costs while completing leasing, bringing the portfolio to 100% occupancy. He also partnered with Prologis to build a $70 million development in Fort Lauderdale, and the first two phases are already fully leased.
When Easton isn’t overseeing industrial developments, he is serving as a leader in the industry. He is the former president of the Miami Board of Realtors, and he is a member of the Coral Gables Board of Realtors and the National Institute of Real Estate Boards. Lending his industry knowledge to local land acquisitions, Easton was appointed by Florida Governor Jeb Bush to serve as chair of a committee to oversee land acquisitions and facility maintenance operations of the Miami-Dade school system, one of the largest in the country. He is also a trustee emeritus and past chairman of the master planning committee at the University of Miami, where he oversees real estate interests and acquisitions.
These successes have earned him an established leadership role at his firm. He is the senior managing director of investments, the senior director of the office and industrial division, senior director of the net leased property group and the director of special asset services group at Marcus & Millichap. Prior to joining the firm, Godwin specialized in investment leasing brokerage and automated data processing at Colliers International.
As an industry leader, Godwin is pushing himself to understand the industry from every angle. He has a CCIM designation, is a member of the Commercial Board of Realtors and he is a licensed builder. He also published The Direct Source, a guide to office leasing in metropolitan Detroit. As a leader in the community, Godwin regularly contributes to local charities, including Manresa Retreat House.
When representing clients, Gregg focuses on challenges like rapidly rising rents as well as facilities management, distribution network analytics, inventory rationalization, location and workplace strategy and project management. The strategy has driven substantial growth in the last four years, gaining 120 new producers and expanded the team’s geographic footprint to 38 locations. In 2019 alone, Gregg’s industrial practice group generated $33.5 million in revenue.
Gregg anticipated the boom in the industrial sector we are seeing today, and established the Industrial Asset Management Council in the early 2000s to bring together thought leaders and leading industrial players to discuss the changes impacting the industry. Today, the organization also provides career development opportunities for real estate veterans and young professionals entering the industry.
These successes have earned Gregg regular recognition and accolades. Among them, Gregg has been named an Arizona Business Leader of the Year, a recognition awarded to the top five brokers in the state by Arizona Business Magazine, for four years running.
Last year, he moved to Avison Young as a principal, and almost immediately doubled his team from 10 brokers to 20 brokers and expanded his client roster, which now includes Prologis, Duke Realty, TA Associates Realty, CIBC, Bridge Development, Venture One Real Estate, Pritzker Realty Group, Deutsche Bank, Becknell Industrial and MWD Logistics. This expansion contributed to growing the company’s agency business by 300% in the past year.
He is an expert in guiding institutional owners and tenants through build-to-suits, investment sales, site acquisitions, valuations and sale-leasebacks, and he specializes in the top Chicago-area industrial markets, including I-55, I-355 and I-80 corridors.
While his focus is closing deals, Haefner also recruits new talent, trains brokers and is involved in management decisions. He is a member of NAIOP and on the board of NAIOP the Association of Industrial Real Estate Brokers. He has a degree in finance from the University of Illinois and regularly participates in the university’s Real Estate Forum, an alumni group of real estate professionals.
He is also a community leader, supporting the Cameron Can Foundation, All in for Ethan and No Kid Hungry, and coaching little league baseball and youth basketball.
Hefner has been a top-ranking producer at Voit since the 1990s, earning the title of highest individual producer at the firm in 2008 and 2018, and since 2014, he has consistently been in the top three ranking producers. As a leader at Voit, Hefner also played a significant role in the firm’s transition to a broker-owned structure.
Outside of the industrial sector, he lends his skills to his kids, helping fundraising efforts for their school and sports teams.
Jensen, who has 35 years of experience in industrial development, is continuing to expand his Midwest portfolio. He is focusing on varied distribution options to respond to changing consumer demand, while overseeing development and industrial brokerage at Kessinger Hunter. That includes site selection, development and permitting, tax incentives, acquisition financing and leasing.
Jensen is a member of SIOR and CSCMP as well as a member of the Kansas City Area Development Council and an advisory board member of the Olathe Economic Development Corp. He has a degree in business marketing from University of Missouri and was inducted into the Commercial Real Estate Hall of Fame by Midwest Real Estate News.
Beyond his impressive transaction volume, Kapp is a reputable leader in the San Francisco industrial community. He has a dual office and industrial certification with SIOR, and he has served as president of the organization’s Northern California Chapter and currently serves as the chair of the technology committee. He has also served as the president of the East Bay Brokers Association, and he regularly speaks at national conferences, most recently as a judge for the CREtech New York Conference pitch competition. The judging panel included leading venture capitalists, angel investors and corporate investors as well as industry thought leaders.
Kapp was named a top producer at NKF from 2012 to 2016 and a CoStar Power Broker from 2013 to 2017. He has an MBA from Haas School of Business at the University of California and a Bachelor’s in business from University of California, Santa Barbara.
Her achievements in 2019 alone are equally as impressive. Last year, Malone completed record-breaking fundraising of $6.2 billion, the largest third-party equity raise in the firm’s history. The raise includes $2.3 billion in private capital for USLF, Prologis’ US open-end logistics fund, and more than $900 million from its joint venture partner Norges Bank Investment Management. Malone also formed the Prologis Core Logistics Fund, the first $1.7 billion open-ended fund in China, and she expanded Strategic Capital’s development venture in China by increasing capacity to more than $3.5 billion. On the transaction side, she played a role in completing the purchase of Industrial Property Trust, a $4 billion deal.
Her impact at the firm is vast. Malone raises capital for eight private investment vehicles for logistics real estate, and she takes a long-term view of asset performance over cycles. In addition to raising capital, she is responsible for client relations and communication with Prologis’ global private institutional investor base and consultants.
Malone’s influence goes beyond capital raising. She is an advocate for gender diversity and equality in the workplace. As a member of the Talent Committee of Real Estate Balance and Prologis’ Global Diversity Initiative, she works to create greater gender balance in the workplace, and she serves as a mentor for young women not only in real estate but across industries. Malone is a member of industry organizations, including INREV and ULI.
This is only the most recent success for Marconi, who has a 20-year career focusing on commercial real estate marketing, development, sales and leasing. He has completed more than 310 industrial transactions with a total value of $363 million. Last year, he worked closely with the firm’s incentives advisory group to acquire an incentives package worth $15 million, and he advised the development of an 180,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility, working in-step with local municipalities and development professionals to form a team that outperformed the client’s initial goals.
Marconi has consistently been named a top performer in his submarket. Last year, he earned the 2019 Industrial Lease of the Year at Transwestern and the 2019 Presidents Award at Transwestern. He is an active member of AIRE and SIOR.
McDonald is also an active tenant representative with an equally robust business. In the last three years, he has worked on some of the largest transactions in the market, including a 1.1 million-square-foot industrial lease negotiated on behalf of Ahold and an 827,000-square-foot lease for an unnamed client in Revere, Massachusetts.
In 2019, McDonald was named a nationwide top industrial producer at Newmark Knight Frank, and earned industrial deal of the year at the Commercial Brokers Association. Active in both his industry and community, McDonald has served as a buildings and grounds committee member at Tufts University since 2012, on the annual game day gala dinner committee at Team Impact since 2013 and on the annual fund committee at St. Sebastian’s School since 2014.
Last year, Merriman led the acquisition of 10 million square feet of industrial space for Black Creek Group, double the firm’s 2018 industrial acquisition volume. He oversaw the purchase of nearly 500 acres of land for 6.6 million square feet of industrial development, and he delivered 3.1 million square feet of new construction space. He also oversaw some important dispositions for the firm, including the sale of Black Creek’s sponsored fund Industrial Property Trust to Prologis for $4 billion. The transaction included 236 industrial properties, totaling 37.5 million square feet in across 24 markets.
Merriman regularly speaks at Black Creek Group’s due diligence forums as an expert in the industrial space, and he is an active member of the Urban Land Institute. Outside of the industrial market, he is involved in UCLA UniCamp, a program that creates opportunities for children from underserved communities to participate in traditional camp programs.
In his career, Petrillo has completed 125 million square feet of transactions totaling more than $285 million in value. He has worked on some of the largest industrial transactions in the nation and has accumulated a quality client roster, including International Paper Corporation, Caleres, Christian Dior Perfumes, Fabuwood, Port Logistics Group, MakeSpace and United Natural Foods. Last year, he launched a dedicated dispositions service to help clients sell excess real estate holdings. The service group includes surplus property consulting, advising businesses and investors on divestment strategies and best practices for monetizing assets and mitigating risk on everything from a single asset to a portfolio.
Beyond sales activity, Petrillo now spearheads strategic direction at Newmark, which involves providing advisory services on transactions that impact supply chain, logistics, warehouse, distribution and manufacturing real estate in North America. He has been named a Power Broker by CoStar, Creative Broker of the Year by Tulfra and has been recognized annually as a top producer by Savills. He is an active member of the Association for Supply Chain Management, the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and the Industrial Asset Management Council.
In the last year, Pino has completed more than 1.7 million square feet of transactions valued at more than $170 million. He has been named NAIOP’s Broker of the Year five times, and was a finalist for the award in 2017, 2018 and 2019. He has won CoStar Broker of the Year every year since 2003, and he has been recognized as an industry and business leader by a number of local publications.
In his role as president of State Street Realty, Pino ensures transactional success at the firm. This year, his top deals include the 1.8 million-square-foot Beacon Centre Business Park, the 530,000-square-foot Airport Business Industrial Center, the 3.1 million-square-foot Beacon Tradeport Industrial Park and the 650,000-square-foot Miami International Logistics Center. He also manages the day-to-day operations of the company, overseeing strategy, revenue and recruitment as well as spearheading new client development and setting the visionary tone for the company.
Pino holds numerous industry memberships and certifications. He is a member of SIOR, NAIOP, Real Property Administrator, Commercial Industrial Association of South Florida, BOMA and the South Florida Office Brokers Association, to name a few. He is also deeply involved in charity work, serving as a board of director at Ronald McDonald House Charities and a member of Orange Bowl Committee.
For the past few years, Smith and his team have been overseeing leasing for Beacon Lakes, a 4-million-square-foot industrial park. Over the past 48 months, they have signed with UPS, XPO, NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises and other major tenants.
Smith’s innovation moves beyond the deal table. This year, he launched a new practice group at JLL, to focus on small bay product ranging in size from 2,500 to 10,000 square feet to better serve multi-tenant industrial markets. JLL currently has a transaction volume of 1.7 million square feet in this category each year, but Smith’s group plans to expand this business to 3 million to 5 million square feet in the next few years.
Smith is a member of SIOR and has participated in panels at CREW Miami. JLL has named him a national director, and he sits on the firm’s industrial executive council.
In doing “whatever it takes,” Snowdon is actively involved in several industry organizations. He is on the board of directors at Charlotte Region Commercial Board of Realtors, and he is chairman of the education committee at the organization, which provides educational opportunities for more than 1,000 realtors through lecture series, programs and top trends. In addition, he holds an SIOR designation.
Based in Charlotte, Snowdon is one of three brokers in the region to be recognized by the Charlotte Region Commercial Board of Realtors for the last three of the past four years. In 2019, he received the CRCBR President’s Award, and in 2017, he was named Foundry’s top producer.
Snowdon is also an active community member, serving as a local troop leader for the Boy Scouts of America and as a property committee member of the First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte.
In Todisco’s 48-year career, he has designed more than one-billion-square-feet of industrial space and he has been a leader at the firm. He began his career with Ware Malcomb in 1998 as regional director, and has moved to offices throughout the country to help lead and grow different aspects of the firm, including expanding the Northern California, Midwest, East Coast and Toronto offices. He was promoted to president this year to oversee nationwide growth for the firm.
Todisco serves on the board of directors at NAIOP’s LA/Orange County Chapter and is the chairman of the NAIOP National Forum. He is a general associate member of SIOR, a LEED Accredited Professional, and has been a member of the American Institute of Architects since 1989. The firm is also an active supporter of The United Way, Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation, Susan G. Komen Foundation, Ronald McDonald House, Baja Challenge and Second Harvest Food Bank.
In addition to working diligently to close deals and serve his clients, Viergever is also a respected leader at the firm. He has been integral in growing the Lee & Associates’ agency leasing business, which has increased from two million to 20 million square feet in the last few years. He is an active mentor for new agents entering the firm, providing training and guidance to establish the next generation of brokers. He also serves as group leader of the Lee & Associates national industrial team.
Viergever is a board member at NAIOP and an SIOR board member and current treasurer. He is an executive board member of City of Atlanta NPUA, and serves as president of his neighborhood improvement board and chairman of the board of Bright Futures Atlanta and Bright Futures Academy.
TEAMS
CBRE NATIONAL PARTNERS Led by Jack Fraker, vice chairman and managing director, the CRE services and leasing and investment team at CBRE is among the top industrial investment sales teams in the nation. While the team launched in 2010, the founding members—including Chris Riley, Mike Hines, Frank Fallon, Barbara Emmons, Darla Longo and Michael Caprile—have a combined 250 years of experience between them. They have closed $169 billion in total sales representing 3 billion square feet, secured $35 billion in financing transactions, and advised more than 700 clients. These are record-shattering numbers for any industrial capital markets team in the history of the company.
In 2019, the team continued to set high benchmarks, closing 302 million square feet in industrial deals, a total of $25 billion in value across 269 transactions. It also operates in every industrial product segment. Its 2019 deal size ranged from $1 million to $5.6 billion. In the past three years, the team has completed 725 million square feet in transactions totaling more than $55 billion. These numbers have landed them in the top 10% of CBRE’s top earners 10 years in a row. The group’s solid camaraderie hasn’t only won them deals, but has also landed them the Gary Beban award for teamwork, CBRE’s highest honor.
The team’s services include investment sales, portfolio sales, property valuation, recapitalizations, joint venture equity, debt sourcing and structuring, sale leasebacks, note sales and preferred equity raises. They work on deals in almost every industrial asset class, from warehouse and distribution, manufacturing and land development to flex properties. Away from the transaction table, each of the team members is involved in the local NAIOP and SIOR, and contributes to a long list of charities, including LD Courage Classic, TA Golf tournament, Blackstone’s Rally Against Lupus, Iron Hill Charity Golf Open, J. G. Petrucci & Co., Inc., Kidney Walk – Equus.
CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD’S LOGISTICS & INDUSTRIAL SERVICES The logistics and industrial services team at Cushman & Wakefield is a network of eight specialty advisory groups with targeted expertise to provide innovative solutions for today’s industrial owners. Tray Anderson, industrial and logistics leader for America; Bethany Clark, senior managing director of industrial strategy and operations; Michael Flynn, director and rail advisory group lead; and Bayne Porter, executive managing director, lead the 840-person advisory team, which operates across two continents in the Americas. The specialty groups include global supply chain solutions, rail, 3PL, food and beverage, ports and intermodal, E-commerce, automotive and build-to-suit.
The rail advisory group is the newest addition to the team. It launched in 2017 in response to increased investor demand for rail-served sites. This includes a vast variety of often overlooked sites, like SIT yards, underutilized track for railcar storage, transload facilities, MSW terminals, auto ramps, specialty chemical and fuel transload facilities, railcar repair and washout facilities. The team builds a support model for the site, assessing project management, specialty rail served facilities management, easement and mark-to-market monetization. It also has access to proprietary software and a marketing platform to identify large-scale utilities configurations close to rail and multi-modal assets.
JLL’S TEAM OF MILLS, DETMER AND SITOV Mark Detmer, Bo Mills and Ryan Sitov lead JLL’s industrial capital markets team for the Western US. The trio describe themselves as market makers, working tirelessly on complex dispositions and negotiating equity placement and recapitalization of industrial assets, business park and back-office properties. They regularly close record-breaking deals. In 2019, the team sold a 1.5-million-square-foot Big Lots facility in the largest non-portfolio sale in the Inland Empire, and in 2018, the team sold a 5.1 million-square-foot portfolio on behalf of VanTrust Real Estate for $425 million.
When the team isn’t breaking records, it is actively involved in the community. Detmer is the chairman of the national ecommerce forum at NAIOP and serves on the industrial and office product council at the Urban Land Institute. Sitov and Mills are also members of both NAIOP and ULI. Detmer and Mills have SIOR and CCIM designations.
MARCUS & MILLICHAP’S TAG INDUSTRIAL TEAM LED BY ABUSHAGUR The TAG Industrial team at Marcus & Millichap launched in 2016 and in the space of a few years has made a big impact in the market. Led by SVP Adam Abushagur, the team grew exponentially in 2019, gaining new team members and a full time staff. It closed 45 industrial investment transactions totaling more than $142 million, and to date, Abushagur has 16 deals under contract totaling more than $156 million, including a defense manufacturing portfolio listed at $120 million. As a result, the team—which includes Tyler Sharp, Sam Martin; Davis Cagle, Cary Latham, Cliff Zimmerman and Max Lozmack and Cary Latham—has gained fast notoriety at the firm, and Abushagur is among the top investment sales agents at Marcus & Millichap.
In addition to Abushagur, other team members have earned accolades. Sharp was named Rookie of the Year in 2019, Martin received the Pacesetter Award, Coach’s Choice Award, and Top Dialer Award in 2019 and Latham received the Pacesetter Award in 2019. Overall, the TAG Industrial team of Marcus & Millichap was the top performing industrial team at the firm.
The team currently serves clients throughout the Southwest and Midwest markets, but Abushagur is planning to expand his reach. He has already moved into the West Texas market and plans to expand into Chicago this year.
Abushagur is equally focused on giving back as he is on growing his team. He has created a part-time internship program for college students in North Texas, his home base, and he is actively involved in his local community, contributing to charities like VogelAlcove and Operation Smile.
NEWMARK KNIGHT FRANK’S MCMILLAN TEAM The McMillan team, led by John McMillan, joined Newmark Knight Frank in 2016, moving from its 24-year home at Cushman & Wakefield. Since its inception, the team has closed $3.7 billion in industrial deals, and it is showing no signs of slowing down. It represents buyers and tenants in infill Los Angeles and throughout Southern California, and continues to grow.
Last year, the McMillan team—which includes senior managing director Jeff Sanita, managing director Danny Williams and associate director Greg Stumm—closed 57 transactions totaling more than 4-million-square-feet, a total asset value of $370 million. The group’s 2019 deal highlights include the $44.1 million sale of Slauson Commerce Center and the $41.3 million sale of 2751 Skypark Drive in Torrance. The activity brought the team’s 3-year total deal volume to 140 deals totaling more than $1 billion.
McMillan has 30 years of industrial real estate experience, and has collected numerous awards. In 2018, he was the top industrial broker at Newmark Knight Frank, and last year he was ranked in the top 10, an illustration of his consistently high sales volume. He joined the firm’s Chairman Circle in 2018, and was a US top producer in both 2017 and 2018. He holds a range of industry designations, including NAIOP, ULI and SIOR.
PROLOGIS RESEARCH TEAM Prologis is a household name in the industrial investment world, and its research team is no less impressive. The group is the only in-house research team in the industrial and logistics sector—which could have something to do with Prologis’ rousing success. The company takes a long-term market view, using data and research to make its investment decisions. This data comes from a combination of the company’s proprietary dataset, third-party data and a boots-on-the-ground view from Prologis customers to provide a thorough view of the industrial market.
Team leader Melinda McLaughlin, VP of research—along with members Dirk Sosef, VP of research and strategy; John Vitou, director of research and valuations; Eric Tsang, manager of research and valuations; Eva van der Pluijm, manager of research and strategy; and Diana Ly, senior research analyst;—analyze everything from customer sentiment and supply chain modernization analysis to global rent growth trends and economic events to provide key insights to the firm’s acquisitions team.
Over the last three years, the research team has reported on changes to the E-commerce and logistics markets and development trends, and it produced a two-part report to redefine the logistics market and the types of industrial facilities that companies would need to meet demand, ultimately determining that phrases like warehouse and flex were too broad for the changing market. The team also leverages its research to produce special reports on topics like trade. Recently, those reports have included the impacts of COVID-19 on the industrial and logistics market.
The research team is inclusive and promotes an innovative culture and strong network of research professionals that work together to achieve goals both inside and outside of the office. That includes active mentorship of young women in the industry as well as raising money for charities, like the Prologis Foundation, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, Junior Achievement and the Children’s Colorado Foundation.
COMPANIES
BLACK CREEK GROUP Black Creek Group has been an industrial player for more than 25 years, having acquired and developed $16 billion in industrial assets throughout North America. As an owner and operator of its real estate, Black Creek Group excels at acquisitions, asset management and leasing, and is an expert in value-add and development. Last year alone, Black Creek Group acquired 10 million square feet of industrial space, doubling its 2018 volume. Those acquisitions included nearly 500 acres in land for future development of 6.6 million square feet of industrial space.
The firm’s plans for the future are equally as impressive as its list of accomplishments. In January, the firm sold real estate assets owned by its sponsored fund Industrial Property Trust to an affiliate of Prologis in a $4 billion deal. The portfolio included 236 assets totaling 37.5 million square feet in 24 markets. Black Creek Group has completed seven such transactions, either taking a fund through its investment cycle or through an IPO.
Beyond its monetary successes, Black Creek Group is committed to serving its local communities. This year, the company launched environmental and social impact reports to drive positive change. Black Creek Group also partners with the community through new construction projects, and participates in neighborhood meetings. It doesn’t only listen to the community needs but makes adjustments to projects based on concerns about traffic, noise and pollution.
Black Creek Group is a leader both in the industrial market and in the community, showing how best practices benefit both investors and people.
CLEAR HEIGHT PROPERTIES Since its launch in 2010, Chicago-based Clear Height Properties has completed $250 million in acquisitions. Its current portfolio totals 33 properties and 2.5 million square feet with more than 300 tenants. Clear Height Properties quick success is the result of its acquisition strategy, which focuses on small and mid-sized industrial flex assets with a value-add component in the Greater Chicago Metro area. Or, as the firm describes, it is “building a portfolio of assets that others haven’t wanted to own, but that tenants want to lease.”
As industrial has become the darling of commercial real estate, Clear Height Properties has continued to stick to its original strategy but has also expanded to include core industrial assets. In the last three years, the firm has completed 38 transactions, both acquisitions and dispositions, totaling $200 million. These transactions included both small box buildings in the 25,000-square-foot range, to mid-size properties of 350,000 square feet. In that time, it has also maintained 90% occupancy throughout its portfolio, signing 2.5 million square feet in lease deals despite taking on new value-add projects.
To help others navigate the industrial market, Clear Height Properties launched a project and development services group, including spec suites, tenant build-out projects and renovation and repositioning programs. The group works on both Clear Height Properties projects and projects for third-party clients, which has become an additional revenue stream for the company.
The company’s leadership has strong ties in the local community. Dominic Sergi, Clear Height Properties president and CEO, sits on the board of Cresco Labs, Conversion Energy Systems and BizAssure, while Joe M. Sergi, COO and partner, is a founding member City of Hope Future Leaders Board; former board member of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, a board member and director of the USO of Illinois and a board member of BOMA Chicago.
CRG As a vertically integrated real estate development company, CRG develops, owns and operates real estate assets and markets across the US. In its three-decade run, CRG has developed more than 8,500 acres and 197 million square feet, totaling $12 billion in value. In 2017, the firm launched the industrial brand, the Cubes, to deliver logistics facilities with access to major transportation and qualified labor. As a standard, the company’s facilities have cutting-edge sustainability practices, zero-tolerance safety programs and modern truck courts, parking and trailer storage to deliver the highest-quality properties to the market.
CRG’s industrial practice group offers a full spectrum of services, for development consultation through construction, leasing and, ultimately, asset management. In the last three years, the company has tripled in size, and launched the company’s first build-to-core industrial fund. The fund will hold assets long-term with the target of delivering core-plus returns for institutional investors.
The firm is also expanding into new markets across the country and actively recruiting seasoned professionals. CRG is committed to providing the best for its team, which includes launching diversity and inclusion initiatives and partnering with Clayco to launch ClaycoNow, a women’s network dedicated to increasing female leadership.
Outside of the office, CRG has the same commitment to community. It has supported local food banks, routinely raising funds and volunteering for the Greater Chicago Food Depository. In partnership with the Clayco Foundation, the firm has also raised $6.5 million to fight RVCL, a rare genetic disease.
CROW HOLDINGS INDUSTRIAL A subsidiary of Dallas-based Crow Holdings, Crow Holdings Industrial launched in 2013 to develop high-quality, environmentally sustainable industrial facilities for such companies as Amazon, Whole Foods, LG, Williams-Sonoma, Uline and Wayfair. In just seven years, Crow Holdings Industrial has built 23 million square feet of industrial space, a total of 60 properties, including distribution centers, fulfillment centers and last-mile logistics properties. The firm’s market impact has increased 300% in the last three years, and the fourth quarter 2019 was its most active with 8 million square feet under construction, record leasing activity across the portfolio and $275 million in property sales.
As Crow Holdings’ portfolio and market share has grown, so has its team and geographic footprint. The developer started its operations in California and has expanded into the Northeast and Midwest markets with six offices. Under CEO, Ken Valach’s direction, the firm currently has properties under construction in New Jersey, Atlanta, California, Houston, Dallas, Chicago and Washington with 9 million square feet in its pipeline and 11 total projects.
Environmental responsibility is a cornerstone of the company, and Crow Holdings aims to use green warehouse standards to reduce energy consumption, costs and emissions, and sources green and recycled building materials whenever possible. LED lighting and EV car charging stations are typical building features in Crow Holdings Industrial projects, and it always attempts to achieve LEED certification. These practices also translate to tenant wellbeing. To ensure health and wellness in its properties, the developer includes outdoor seating, walking trails and food truck parks while positioning properties near labor centers to reduce commute times.
DEDEAUX PROPERTIES With 25 years of experience in the California logistics industry, Dedeaux Properties has built a reputation as an innovator in transportation-orientated, cold storage and distribution facilities. The company currently has a portfolio of six million square feet, making it one of the largest non-institutional industrial owners in Los Angeles. Dedeaux aims high with its developments. For example, it is currently building a facility in the Inland Empire with 100 trans-loading cross-dock doors and 600 trailer parking positions. It is a rare facility, even in the mature Southern California market.
Dedeaux has evolved from a private local firm into an institutional player with private equity and family office capital providers, and in the last year, it has become more strategic in its investments, focusing on high-end distribution and cross-dock facilities. That has included completing full cycle investments on a 1 million-square-foot facility in Riverside for $131 million, and developing an adjacent 360,000-square-foot distribution facility.
Outside of the office, president, Brett Dedeaux serves as executive director of the Rod Dedeaux Foundation, which supports youth baseball and softball programs in underserved areas. The foundation helps more than 2,000 at-risk youths every year through college scholarships for the MLB Urban Youth Academy in Compton and an equipment warehouse for Pitch in For Baseball. This is part of the firm’s commitment to the community and leadership, which is a pillar of Dedeaux’s internal philosophy.
DPSTUDIO ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTING & DESIGN LLC dpSTUDIO Environmental Consulting and Design, which specializes in providing Phase I Environmental Site Assessments for industrial and manufacturing properties involved in a merger and acquisition, has a unique approach to performing site assessments during due diligence. dpSTUDIO not only researches existing reports but also state regulatory files, permits and correspondence related to the environmental condition of the property. It also makes sure it understands unique lender requirements and it provides cost estimates for contingent liabilities to provide the best valuation.
dpSTUDIO performs a wide range of tasks for its clients, from conducting regulatory database reviews to conducting on-site field reconnaissance and historical reviews of property use. In addition, it embraces an Environmental, Social and Governance philosophy, which includes programs that consider a company’s energy use, waste, natural resource conservation, and even treatment of animals.
dpSTUDIO has been named a leader in M&A environmental due diligence industry by Finance Monthly Magazine. In a recent survey conducted with 12 different clients, dpSTUDIO scored a 97 out of 100 in performance evaluation. The high score ranks the firm among the top environmental engineering firms.
HSA COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE HSA Commercial Real Estate launched in 1981 to develop industrial facilities in centralized emerging Midwestern submarkets near major logistics hubs in Chicago, Nashville and Indianapolis. The firm was among the first in realizing the importance of the I-94 logistics corridor between Chicago and Milwaukee, and completed the first project in the area a decade ago. Today, it is a top submarket for industrial development.
In 39 years, the company has developed 100 million square feet of industrial space valued at more than $6 billion. HSA currently has a portfolio of 14 million square feet in the Midwest with 3 million square feet of spec industrial space under development.
It is also continuing to hit new milestones. In the last three years, HSA has expanded into Nashville, Indianapolis and southeast Wisconsin. It has developed five properties totaling 630,000 square feet and added 1.5 million square feet to its portfolio in Oak Creek and Waukesha. In 2019, HSA developed its largest single industrial facility, a 757,880-square-foot warehouse in Shorewood, Illinois. The firm also acquired a 68-acre parcel in Bristol, Wisconsin, near I-94 and close to the Wisconsin-Illinois border, to build the Bristol Highlands Commerce Center, which will total 1 million square feet. The first two buildings will deliver later this year, and Amazon and Uline are among the potential users.
In 2020 and beyond, the firm plans to stick to this strategy, which has served it well, by targeting southeast Wisconsin, Chicago, Indianapolis, Nashville and Kansas City. It is also considering opportunities in emerging markets like Denver and port cities in the Southeast.
Outside of the office, HSA is active in the community. The firm is a long-time partner of Chicago Commons, which provides services and programming for children, families and seniors in low-income communities, and the company has been named a Corporate Partner of the Year.
NEWCASTLE PARTNERS Newcastle Partners has been a leading developer in the wildly popular Inland Empire industrial market. Since 1999, the developer has built more than 50 projects totaling 15 million square feet and $1.1 billion in value. Flexibility is a key characteristic of this innovative firm. It develops a large variety of industrial facilities, from 10,000 to 600,000 square feet to address the wide rage of market demand, and it is able to execute a multitude of strategies, including land entitlement, new construction and asset repositioning to achieve the optimum risk-adjusted returns for its institutional and private investors. Last year, Newcastle assembled 12 separate industrial parcels to develop Waterman Industrial Center, a 550,000-square-foot distribution facility. The property leased above the pro forma and sold.
Newcastle is also committed to environmental responsibility. Half of its developments are LEED Silver-certified and all buildings sport features to help reduce carbon footprint, including preparation for installation of solar panels; drought-tolerant landscaping; water-efficient landscaping; enhanced window and building insulation and design to accommodate maximum daylight.
The firm’s team is active both within the business and local community. Many Newcastle professionals are members of NAIOP and ULI, and employees are encouraged to get involved in local civil work. Above all, the firm aims to live up to its core principles: integrity, transparency, respect and relationship.
NORTHBRIDGE PARTNERS Developer and investor NorthBridge Partners has spent the last 15 years focusing on last-mile industrial properties in major markets in the Northeast US. The vertically integrated firm has been successful in its core strategy, targeting small-to-mid-sized boxes with a value-add component. Since 2015, it has invested in 30 properties totaling $450 million in value. The emergence of next-day and same-day delivery have underscored the firm’s acquisition philosophy: delivery time has an impact on consumer purchases. Northbridge has seen companies seek industrial assets close to major metros to achieve those delivery goals and cut transportation costs.
This strategy has driven strong returns, particularly in the last three years. In 2018, NorthBridge closed NB Partners I Fund, which went on to generate gross returns of 53.8% IRR. The same year, it launched NB Partners Fund II, raising $113 million in discretionary capital and $30 million in a joint venture co-investment vehicle. The fund has already invested $104 million in its target markets. This year, the firm launched yet a third fund NB Partners Fund III with a target fundraise of $300 million.
NorthBridge Partners continues to grow its portfolio and its geographic coverage. This year, that included opening a new office in Philadelphia and adding someone to lead strategy in the Mid-Atlantic region to move outside of the Northeast market.
NorthBridge also launched Coffee Connectors, a program to help first-generation college graduates in the Boston community network and build relationships that will move their career forward. Team members are also active in local charities, including United Way, Inversant, the PlayBall Foundation, the Massachusetts Housing & Shelter Alliance and the Massachusetts Historical Society.
UNIRE REAL ESTATE GROUP Asset management firm Unire Real Estate Group has 20 years of experience providing asset services to the owners and tenants of institutional-quality industrial properties. Founded in 2000, the company provides best-in-class services without leasing and sales commissions, allowing it to work with the best vendors and brokers in the area. Unire currently manages a portfolio of 50 million square feet totaling $10 billion.
Unire curates a dedicated team of professionals to oversee each asset to provide best-in-class service. It believes successful asset management is a partnership with the ownership, and takes an ownership-level pride in handling each client’s portfolio. Its services include comprehensive asset management and fiscal guidance to maximize the return for investors.
Urine expanded its services into San Francisco and Las Vegas to respond to market demand this year, securing 3 million square feet in class-A industrial space in the Las Vegas market, and opening an office in San Francisco. In addition, the company’s Orange County portfolio is in the top-five for square feet under management.
Unire regularly works with local charities, including Miracle Babies, City of Brea, Families Forward, Ronald McDonald House, Mariner Raiders, Casa, giving back with both financial contributions and volunteer time.