However, in general HPP does not flip properties very quickly. “We've had assets that we've held for 20 years,” Neal says. It recently owned about one million square feet in the Detroit area, which the company finally sold off almost 12 years after the original purchase. “That was a very positive experience for us.”

HPP currently owns around 125 properties, with a base of operations in Southern CA, Neal says. The firm typically buys up groups of properties in particular areas so it can build up a management infrastructure to provide efficient services. Therefore, even though HPP takes a very positive view of the Midwest, it is unlikely to start buying one or two properties at a time in various metro areas. “That model really does not work for us; we're very sensitive to the need to create a management base.”

HPP also successfully acquired several strategic assets in CA: a 119,000-square-foot industrial property on 4.62 acres at 955 Kennedy St. in Oakland; a 41,715-square-foot ice cream plant on 5.49 acres at 6400 Regio Ave. in Buena Park; and a 42,988-square-foot milk plant on 4.69 acres at 6408 Regio Ave. in Buena Park.

MILWAUKEE—Hager Pacific Properties, a Newport Beach, CA-based privately owned real estate investment firm, has just invested $35 million in four strategic corporate real estate properties in CA and WI. The properties include Brown Deer Business Park, a 585,292 square foot complex on 32.41 acres in Brown Deer, a suburb of Milwaukee. This purchase by a significant coastal investor is a big vote of confidence in the Midwest city's industrial market, and perhaps a sign that more capital is on the way.

“We would have been more careful about investing in Milwaukee a few years ago,” Rob Neal, managing partner of HPP, tells GlobeSt.com. “But we've seen very strong absorption in the Midwest, and Milwaukee itself has a really good occupancy rate; only about 7% of the space is vacant.”

Company officials now consider Milwaukee a strong secondary market, but what really attracted HPP was the qualities of the property itself. “We are not keen on a property if it gives us only one option for an exit,” says Neal. But the Brown Deer complex will give the company many choices in the future. Its eight buildings, for example, could be sold individually or in groups. But before that, HPP is confident that it can lease up the property and establish an even stronger cash flow.

The business park, which is located at the intersection of N. Green Bay Rd. and W. Brown Deer Rd. about 10 miles north of downtown Milwaukee, is comprised of industrial, office and flex space. It has an occupancy rate of about 70%, but Neal that the company already has potential tenants expressing very strong interest in about 50,000 square feet of vacant space. And the park currently has a strong mix of national and local tenants including Pitney Bowes, Otis Elevators, OTR Engineering and Kleen Test.

However, in general HPP does not flip properties very quickly. “We've had assets that we've held for 20 years,” Neal says. It recently owned about one million square feet in the Detroit area, which the company finally sold off almost 12 years after the original purchase. “That was a very positive experience for us.”

HPP currently owns around 125 properties, with a base of operations in Southern CA, Neal says. The firm typically buys up groups of properties in particular areas so it can build up a management infrastructure to provide efficient services. Therefore, even though HPP takes a very positive view of the Midwest, it is unlikely to start buying one or two properties at a time in various metro areas. “That model really does not work for us; we're very sensitive to the need to create a management base.”

HPP also successfully acquired several strategic assets in CA: a 119,000-square-foot industrial property on 4.62 acres at 955 Kennedy St. in Oakland; a 41,715-square-foot ice cream plant on 5.49 acres at 6400 Regio Ave. in Buena Park; and a 42,988-square-foot milk plant on 4.69 acres at 6408 Regio Ave. in Buena Park.