CHICAGO—The industrial market in the Chicago metro area has lagged behind some of its counterparts such as New Jersey and Southern California, but recent good news has even perked up interest in portfolios filled with largely B product. The Brennan Investment Group's recent purchase of 23 properties scattered throughout the region for $164 million is a good example, but the deal was not a standard purchase of real estate. Rosemont-based Brennan joined forces with New York-based Goldman Sachs to acquire Mirvac Industrial Trust, an Australian public REIT, and these properties, which total about 4.68-million-square-feet, were what remained in its portfolio.

“They bought these properties from CenterPoint years ago,” Michael Brennan, chairman and managing principal of the Brennan group, tells GlobeSt.com. And the deal itself was a two-step process. First the partners bought the outstanding shares of Mirvac, and then the company was delisted from the Australian Stock Exchange and its remaining properties were bundled into a more traditional property portfolio.

Brennan calls the properties, mostly spread out between Southeast Wisconsin, Lake, and DuPage counties, class B to A-minus, but adds that the burgeoning industrial market, both for the US in general and the Chicago market in particular, gives him a great deal of confidence that demand will remain robust. Business spending is trending up, and “absorption has outpaced new construction and new supply.” Furthermore, the tenants generally consider these buildings “mission critical” and have spent a good amount of money on upgrades. “We sit in a very good spot.”