GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: JV Launches With $300M Purse

ATLANTA-Oakmont Industrial Group has put up its entire portfolio and pipeline--2.4 million sf in Atlanta and Southern California--to seed a "buy or build" plan to amass $300 million of assets within three years with joint venture partners, Prudential Real Estate Investors and Hunt Realty Corp.

Richard Rider, president of the locally based Oakmont, says the JV partners began talking a few months ago about Oakmont National Ventures, which could top out in two to three years "if not sooner." The JV could be expanded, but that's "to be determined," he says. He tells GlobeSt.com that the launch pad holds all that Oakmont owns: 14 properties in various stages of development with a build-out value of more than $100 million.

Rider says the recapitalization strategy will be used to gain footholds in core industrial markets, including a return ticket to Dallas/Fort Worth and a push into the Mid-Atlantic states. Three years ago, Oakmont teamed with Dallas-based Hunt for a similar recapitalization to push its way into SoCal. And just like then, Rider says Oakmont is now looking for local partners to head up business units in the target regions.

"The bottom line is that adding Pru into the mix provides the investment partnership with scalability," says Gene Sanger, Hunt Realty president, "which we believe is critical in the industrial arena today."

Rider says the JV's buying power is aimed at "functional assets in core markets that have a good story or repositioning opportunity." The purse also will cover acquisitions of strategically located land for development, one-offs and portfolios. "We're small and nimble enough where we can compete and execute the one-off acquisitions," he stresses. Careful not to jinx the deals before they close, all he'll say is he's already holding contracts for "a significant pipeline of new business in Southern California."