Four Springs Capital Trust Buys Eight Industrial Properties for $183M
The acquisitions include five build-to-suit opportunities and three sale-leaseback and existing assets.
Four Springs Capital Trust has dramatically expanded its industrial holdings by acquiring eight industrial properties valued at approximately $183 million. The acquisitions include five build-to-suit opportunities and three sale-leaseback and existing assets.
The acquisitions represent a change in approach for the REIT, which generally makes one-off purchases and rarely does portfolio plays.
The REIT’s acquisitions include two last-mile distribution facilities leased to an e-commerce company and six other industrial properties, including cold storage and food distribution, light manufacturing and bulk distribution properties in strong target markets leased to creditworthy tenants.
FSCT owns and operates a diversified portfolio of industrial, medical and retail properties net leased to investment grade and other creditworthy tenants under long-term leases, traditionally.
“While distribution facilities have always played an important role in a company’s logistics supply chain, e-commerce and the effects of COVID-19 on consumer behavior have increased demand for industrial real estate,” said William Dioguardi, CEO of FSCT, said in prepared remarks. “These eight properties underscore the continued diversified investment strategy for our portfolio.”
This eight-property acquisition comes after the REIT recently completed a $150 million institutional financing from Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Magnetar Capital.
“Four Springs Capital Trust is a late-stage private company with a strong management team that is focused on building a portfolio of defensive, income-producing net leased real estate,” said Sean Brenan, managing director at Goldman Sachs in prepared remarks. “We see the opportunity for growth and durable income from their platform and are excited to be an investment partner.”
It’s little surprise that big-name investors are chasing industrial. With other sectors have struggled through the pandemic, industrial has performed well.
Buoyed by growth in e-commerce, the warehouse/distribution space absorbed 35.4 million square feet in Q4, which was its highest mark since Q1 2019 when 70.7 million square feet were absorbed, according to Moody’s Analytics. In Q4, occupancy growth was 28.5 million square feet, while it was 24.2 million square feet in Q4 2019. The sector has gone more than a decade since it last experienced negative net absorption in 2010.