Globest. Real Estate Forum Presents: Industrial Influencers
14.8 billion square feet. That is where industrial demand is expected to be by 2023, about 850 million square feet away from where we are today.…
14.8 billion square feet. That is where industrial demand is expected to be by 2023, about 850 million square feet away from where we are today. Without a doubt, the industrial asset class continues to be white-hot with activity. Yet, there are signs of fundamentals shifting and in some markets supply appears to be finally catching up with demand. But on the whole demand looks solid for the foreseeable future.
It would seem easy, at first glance, to navigate this market. All you have to do is find an asset, buy and renovate it to meet current tenant demands. Or develop one from the ground up. Lather, rinse, repeat.
In truth, of course, it is far more difficult than that, with such things as valuation, underwriting and changing trends in the industry needing to be factored in. In fact, one could make the claim that the market is that much more difficult to navigate because activity has been so intense.
Hence our industrial influencers on the next several pages. We have chosen individuals and teams that have demonstrated their mastery of these nuances and are thriving in an active-but-complicated market.
Abushagur established a team and grew it 10-fold within the last year acquiring agents and a full-time staff, consisting of escrow, operations, marketing, research, strategy and analytics. Since 2017, his team has closed 43 industrial investment transactions in excess of $107 million.
In addition to Abushagur’s numerous achievements, the turning point and major accomplishment in his career was being recognized as the top transitioned sales intern across the entire Marcus & Millichap brokerage team at its National Achievement Awards in 2017, recognized as the number two office/industrial agent, and top 10 Texas agent in 2017 and 2018. Today, Abushagur ranks among the top three office and industrial investment sales agents.
Abushagur impacts lives through the philanthropic initiatives of the North Texas Food Bank and Feeding America’s Million Meals Initiative. The M&M Dallas office boxed 25 pallets (10,150 meals) and raised money to serve 300,000 meals to families throughout North Texas in 2018.
In December 2017, Baxter was named NAIOP Georgia Volunteer of the year, along with two others, for her work with the first NAIOP Diversity Camp. She served as NAIOP Georgia board member from 2013 to the present, NAIOP Future Leaders class of 2011, executive committee in 2012 and Future Leaders director in 2013. Baxter was elected by the Georgia SIOR board as an associate member, serving from 2014 to 2015. She was the first-ever state economic development member in Georgia. Baxter was a Leadership Georgia Graduate in 2016.
Through NAIOP Georgia, she volunteers annually for various events benefiting the Ron Clark Academy, a nonprofit middle school located in Southeast Atlanta. Baxter also volunteers annually as a judge for the Georgia 4H club’s State Congress competition.
In 2013, Ware Malcomb designed the winning concept for NAIOP’s distribution/fulfillment center of the future, which featured a five-story automated fulfillment center. Bennett now implements the prototype on more than a dozen multi-story projects in development for Ware Malcomb in the Northeast alone.
He is an active member of NAIOP and IOREBA, a LEED-accredited professional and National Council of Architectural Registration Boards Certified. Bennett has presented on multistory distribution and other industrial market trends at numerous events for NAIOP, ULI and others. He is a participant in Ware Malcomb’s program Culture Designed to Care, celebrating the firm’s culture of giving. Bennett also mentors within the company.
BRIDGE DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS As the industrial market continues to surge, Bridge Development Partners has been at the sector’s forefront. Bridge has earned its reputation as a leader creating adaptable facilities, and as a company able to transform brownfields and other underutilized parcels into economically productive venues in supply-constrained markets. Since its inception in 2000, Bridge has developed more than 33 million square feet of industrial buildings and projects with a total valuation of more than $5.2 billion. Since 2013 alone, the company acquired and/or developed and sold more than 28 million square feet of real estate valued at more than $4.8 billion; building its portfolio in the supply-constrained core industrial markets of Chicago, South Florida, New Jersey/New York, Southern California, the Bay Area, and the Seattle and Portland regions.
While the company’s expansion and success during this period has been impressive, three projects stand out as particularly significant: the Box Yard, Bridge Point Franklin Park and Sunset Industrial Park. These projects serve as a testament to Bridge’s innovative approach to development, environmental remediation and its ability to unlock regional economic potential.
In January 2019, Bridge acquired the Box Yard, a 261,528-square-foot industrial property in Los Angeles. The plans for the property include all-new office buildouts and aesthetic updates, as well as electric vehicle charging stations. Located within walking distance of the downtown Arts District and a 10-minute drive from the Financial District, this project is especially crucial to the industrial users displaced by the large influx of commercial development in the area. The Box Yard is arguably the last truly industrial building located near downtown Los Angeles, making it a critical component of the city’s economic future.
In 2017, the company began the development of Bridge Point Franklin Park, an industrial campus comprised of three buildings in the Village of Franklin Park, IL. The buildings, totaling 744,488 square feet, were constructed on the site of a former petroleum tank farm. In order to make way for the new development, Bridge cleared the 48-acre environmentally neglected property, home to 16 large petroleum tanks spanning half a mile along Chicagoland’s busiest interstate. Upon completion, it is expected to attract approximately 700 permanent jobs and approximately triple the tax revenue for the Village of Franklin Park.
In New York City, Bridge recently began the development process on Sunset Industrial Park, the largest planned multi-story industrial development in the country. The four-story distribution center of up to 1.3 million square feet will offer access to roughly 13 million customers within an hour’s drive.
The company has been especially active in Chicago where it maintains its corporate headquarters. During 2018, Bridge Development Partners acquired, broke ground on and/or delivered 23 industrial facilities in the Chicago market, totaling more than 5.3 million square feet valued at more than $658 million. Bridge remains most active in the O’Hare submarket, where it has been responsible for approximately 40% of recent industrial development.
In 2018, the company opened a new office in Seattle, and has since begun acquiring and developing space that can accommodate the region’s technology-driven growth. Bridge is in the process of developing four industrial properties in Washington and Oregon that can accommodate last-mile delivery, warehousing, logistics and distribution.
As industrial tenants continue to flock to outlying areas surrounding major population centers, Bridge has long focused on the last mile, taking unique sites that provide access to major metropolitan areas and transforming them into economically productive properties. Some 90% of Bridge’s projects are built on a speculative basis, requiring building sites to flexibly accommodate a variety of modern users.
In 2018, Bridge Development Partners’ $240 million Bridgeport Logistics Center project was selected by the New Jersey chapter of NAIOP as its 2018 Industrial Deal of the Year recipient. Additionally, Bridge’s Northeast Region partner Jeff Milanaik was honored that same year with NAIOP NJ’s Impact of the Year Award, while Bridge was named winner of the NAIOP Chicago Award for Excellence/Industrial Speculative Development of the Year. Bridge was also named 2018 Developer of the Year by both NAIOP South Florida and the Chicago Commercial Real Estate Awards. In 2019, the company was also named a finalist for the Real Estate Finance & Investment Commercial Real Estate Awards. Other awards have been extended to Bridge in recent years such as the honor by the city of Fort Lauderdale.
CAPROCK PARTNERS With only 10 years under its belt, industrial real estate investment and development firm CapRock Partners has become a dominant force in the industrial real estate industry. To date, the company has acquired, developed or pipelined in excess of 12 million square feet of industrial real estate totaling more than $1.6 billion. CapRock Partners’ entrepreneurial approach and in-house expertise is used in all phases of the acquisition, development, management and disposition of institutional-quality industrial properties.
At the forefront of CapRock’s development strategy is building energy-efficient industrial manufacturing, warehouse and distribution facilities. The firm is committed to proper environmental stewardship and makes necessary investments to ensure all new developments comply at minimum with CalGreen standards or a level of LEED certification. CapRock Partners is currently under construction on approximately 4 million square feet of industrial space, with another 3.5 million square feet slated to commence in the next 12 to 24 months. Most, if not all, will be either CalGreen-compliant or LEED-certified.
A prime example of CapRock’s commitment to sustainable innovation is Colony Commerce Center, a 3-million-square-foot development in the Inland Empire that CapRock entitled as a master-planned business park before selling to Ivanhoé Cambridge for $450 million. CapRock is now developing the business park on behalf of Ivanhoé Cambridge. Colony Commerce Center Phase I is one of the 10th largest US industrial developments and is on track for completion at year-end 2019. Colony Commerce Center Phase II will commence construction this spring as a second of the 10 largest industrial developments in 2019.
Another core focus of CapRock Partners’ acquisition approach is its value-add strategy. CapRock Partners leans in to its vast network to source off-market investment opportunities in middle-market, under-valued or under-performing properties throughout the West. The firm is actively acquiring land for development and value-add buildings in California, Nevada and Arizona.
The CapRock team understands that there is no one-size-fits-all formula to repositioning industrial assets. The company takes a strategic entrepreneurial approach and carefully considers many factors in determining the business plan for each property, such as location, functionality and regional demand. This approach allows CapRock to redesign and bring properties to the highest and best use while generating attractive returns on investment.
CapRock designs, develops and builds projects that not only withstand the test of time, but also create long-term value. From the beginning of every project, CapRock Partners is committed to delivering the best solutions for all constituents from neighboring property owners to local business leaders and government entities.
CapRock Partners acquires value-add middle market industrial and develops facilities through its three core strategies: unlocking value through individual business plans, developing institutional-quality logistics properties and developing small-box industrial warehouse properties. Through these strategies, CapRock Partners investments on average consistently outperform national indexes such as NCREIF PI, NFI-CEVA and Preqin Value-Add. As of January 2019, CapRock Partners has been registered with the SEC.
CapRock’s president Jon Pharris was recognized as one of Real Estate Forum’s “50 Under 40” in 2018. He co-founded the company at 29 years old, and at the age of 34, became the company’s president, leading acquisition and fund investment strategies for more than 12 million square feet and $1.6 billion of industrial space the company has acquired, developed or has in the pipeline to date.
Nine CapRock Partners employees are NAIOP members, and two of those are either former committee leaders or hold current leadership positions. A member for 10-plus years, Pharris has held many positions within the organization, including former national board member. He graduated from NAIOP SoCal’s YPG program in 2009.
Taylor Arnett, vice president of acquisitions at Caprock Partners, is a former board member of NAIOP SoCal and is a graduate of NAIOP SoCal’s YPG. In 2016, Arnett was one of 21 selected nationally to receive the NAIOP Developing Leaders Award. He was awarded NAIOP’s 2019 Volunteer of the Year.
Russell Fenton and Stefan Kelley will graduate from YPG this year and next, respectively.
Bob O’Neill, CapRock’s senior vice president of acquisitions, has raised significant monetary contributions for NAIOP charities through the Building Block Foundation. CapRock Giving Foundation is committed to donating more than $3 million to various charities during the next few years.
IPG is involved in more than $1.7 billion worth of industrial real estate properties in the Greater New York City area. Chung’s greatest accomplishment in the past three years has been the process of redefining urban logistics through the development of 1.8 million square feet of updated high-tech warehousing space in New York City. IPG’s portfolio currently consists of six properties within the five boroughs, including the firm’s biggest project, 2505 Bruckner, a multi-story urban logistics facility on 20 acres in the Bronx. By building high-tech facilities, IPG’s properties will service the needs of the 9.4 million people in the city with technology, close proximity to all five boroughs and access to major highways.
COLLIERS INTERNATIONAL First beginning in the San Gabriel Valley and eventually expanding into the Inland Empire, the duo of Colliers’ Tom Taylor and Steve Bellitti have been one of Southern California’s top-producing industrial brokerage teams with a keen understanding of transaction complexities. Their team effort goes back to the 1990s and now centers on the Inland Empire region, having executed a variety of large-scale transactions and providing strategic solutions that directly impact clients’ bottom lines.
During the past three decades, the team has built relationships with some of the largest names in the industry, which they continue to do today. Specifically, Taylor has developed strong relationships with major property developers, institutions, prominent private investors and corporate users throughout the Southern California region.
In the past three years, the team has transacted 36.1 million square feet with a total consideration of $1.25 billion. Since 2010, Taylor and Bellitti have sold 1,284 acres to various clients for future development. Their largest transaction last year was a $100.5-million 927,708-square-foot sale for CH Realty to Alere Property Group in Redlands, CA. This type of transaction resulted in a number one ranking among Colliers brokers in 2018 Moreover, the sale was 2018’s largest industrial sale transaction and led to a 2018 GLA region top producer award. Others include a 2017 Inland Empire top producer/industrial, 2016-17 Colliers top producer Greater Los Angeles Area, 2017 Costar Power Broker award, 2015-19 Colliers number one ranked industrial team/broker West Coast, 2016-17 Max Green Circle of Excellence outstanding production award, 2012 NAIOP Largest Inland Empire land transaction, 2011 Majestic’s top industrial transaction and 2009 largest building leased in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD – LOGISTICS & INDUSTRIAL SERVICES TEAM Cushman & Wakefield’s logistics and industrial services team completed more than 216.8 million square feet of US transactions in 2018 alone, spread across eight specialty advisory groups with more than 840 professionals in the Americas.
Tray Anderson is the leader of Cushman & Wakefield’s Logistics & Industrial Services platform for the Americas. Anderson is a supply chain expert that has spent his entire 20+-year professional career in the industry, both on the client side and as a top-end consultant. His knowledge of supply chain strategy is helping Cushman & Wakefield continue to grow its Logistics & Industrial practice, while providing clients with expertise on how to integrate their supply chain and real estate strategies.
Bethany Clark is senior managing director of industrial strategy and operations at Cushman & Wakefield. Clark is a strategist with a rare background in both supply chain and real estate. Her ability to run distribution center networks and partner across a variety of Cushman & Wakefield departments ensures industrial brokers are equipped with leading supply chain insights, business development support, thought leadership and research.
Jason Tolliver is VP and head of logistics and industrial research for the Americas. He works collaboratively to provide clients with advice on macroeconomic trends affecting industrial and commercial real estate. Tolliver regularly creates articles for industrial trade publications, citing Cushman & Wakefield’s research report findings, and serves as an expert source for regional and national media outlets.
Rich Hamilton is the managing director and leader of Cushman & Wakefield’s 3PL advisory group. He has experience in manufacturing and supply chain, third-party logistics/3PL and industrial real estate. Hamilton’s experience as first vice president for global customer solutions at Prologis focused his efforts on the 3PL vertical as well as occupiers in the manufacturing, retail and consumer goods industries. He is an industry expert and speaker who has published content, and provided media commentary on industry trends and projections.
Ben Conwell is senior managing director and leader of Cushman & Wakefield’s e-commerce and electronic fulfillment advisory group for the Americas, and a founder of the firm’s new e-commerce initiative. He is the former director of North America Logistics Real Estate for Amazon Fulfillment Services, the logistics and operations subsidiary of Amazon.com, leading the largest and fastest expansion of network capacity in Amazon’s history by doubling the size of its logistics footprint. Conwell frequently authors articles and provides commentary for trade publications, and is a featured guest at industry events.
DAUM COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE SERVICES DAUM Commercial has positioned itself as the champion of the core industrial sector. Founded in 1904, DAUM is Southern California’s oldest brokerage firm. For the past century, the firm has specialized in and shaped the landscape of industrial brokerage in the Southwest.
An influencer both with product and people, DAUM has worked with core industrial developers, tenants, and investors to advise, shape and lead the charge on how industrial product is positioned, marketed and sold. DAUM’s region of expertise includes the Inland Empire, the most active industrial market in the country in terms of leasing activity last year, which also saw a record number of new construction projects. The influence of DAUM is also seen in Los Angeles and Orange counties, where select in-fill submarkets are consistently posting industrial vacancies in the 1% range.
DAUM Commercial Real Estate Services provides brokerage, tenant representation, consulting, leasing, sales and property management. DAUM has 10 offices throughout Southern California and Arizona. In 2018, DAUM’s team of 140 agents completed a total of more than $3 billion in leasing and sale transactions, heavily concentrated in the Southern California and Phoenix areas–more than $2 billion of this was in industrial product.
Significant transactions from the past three years include representing buyer Black Creek Group and the seller, one of the largest US REITs, in the acquisition of a three-building industrial portfolio totaling 743,381 square feet in Colton, CA; directing the acquisition of a 200,850-square-foot distribution warehouse in Rialto, CA to global consumer goods manufacturer United Exchange Corporation, and completing the sale of a portfolio of three individual buildings totaling 149,772 square feet within a multi-tenant industrial complex in Camarillo, CA.
Working with a specific focus on industrial has allowed the DAUM team to develop a shared understanding of the industrial market. For example, DAUM recently directed the acquisition of a land parcel in the San Gabriel Valley to Dedeaux Properties and worked closely with the firm through the marketing of the project. Knowing that small industrial companies were seeking ownership opportunities in the region and finding little to none, DAUM’s team advised the developer to leverage this demand by constructing a project offering smaller for-sale buildings. The developer ultimately built the seven-building facility with for-sale buildings ranging from 27,400 to 43,200 square feet. This quickly proved to be a wise decision. Five of the seven buildings were under contract within a handful of months after the development broke ground, and DAUM attracted back-up offers on most of the units before construction was complete. The sales of all seven buildings ultimately closed within weeks of construction completion for a total consideration of $50 million.
The firm continues to invest in its next generation, increasing its total number of agents in the under-35 age range by more than 50%, and increasing production among its young leaders by more than 100% since 2014.
DAUM is an influencer in several industrial and commercial real estate organizations including SIOR, NAIOP, CCIM, ONCOR International and the American Industrial Real Estate Association. DAUM’s team also supports several community nonprofits including Habitat for Humanity of Orange County and numerous others.
Dedeaux is executive director of the Rod Dedeaux Foundation, which honors his grandfather, the legendary Olympic and collegiate baseball coach, Rod Dedeaux, by supporting baseball and softball programs in underserved areas. Through the efforts of its partners, the foundation helps more than 2,000 at-risk youths every year with valuable programs. This includes college scholarships for the MLB Urban Youth Academy and in conjunction with USA Baseball, the foundation hosts the Golder Spikes Award, the equivalent to college football’s Heisman Trophy, which is given to the nation’s top collegiate baseball player.
Dedeaux’s career began with the family company, Dart Warehouse Corp., a national full-service transportation, logistics and fulfillment provider founded in 1938.
DH PROPERTY HOLDINGS LLC Dov Hertz has a keen sense of the value of real estate and puts that talent to use in creating value for employers and clients. He developed a knack for assisting clients in completing complex real estate transactions with Eastern Consolidated and later honed his skills while negotiating hundreds of millions of square feet in deals for Everest Broadcast Networks.
Hertz spent more than a decade with Extell Development Co. overseeing the purchase of more than $20 billion in New York real estate. He was directly responsible for such notable Extell acquisitions and developments as the Ring Portfolio, One 57, Nordstrom Tower and One Manhattan Square.
In 2016, Hertz leveraged his extensive knowledge of New York real estate to launch his own firm, DH Property Holdings LLC, where he invests in underperforming assets in and around New York City. Since then, DHPH has acquired approximately 2 million square feet of developable land throughout the New York City’s Outer Boroughs, the largest such assemblage in the city. The firm has more than 1.7 million square feet in multistory e-commerce logistics facilities planned or under development, perhaps the largest in the US.
Hertz founded DHPH along with Aaron Malitzky, senior associate, who has extensive expertise in Manhattan real estate development that complements Hertz’s abilities. Both have been featured speakers at numerous real estate industry events.
In developing and managing the company’s private equity affinity group, he works with companies in the $250 million to $3 billion range. Esposito focuses on identifying issues and solutions well before real estate needs arise. This involves everything from government incentive procurement and network optimization, to labor market and transportation due diligence.
During the past three years, he has expanded the group’s footprint on a global scale, working with private equity portfolio businesses that have real estate holdings across a wide geographic spectrum including Europe, Australia and Asia.
He is a consistent top producer at Avison Young and has been recognized with numerous awards. Esposito and his team were responsible for securing a $12.3 million incentive package for construction on a 70-acre site in Chippewa Falls, WI. This transaction was named as one of Avison Young’s best deals of 2017 and was a finalist for the Ted Avison award for best case study. In 2018, Esposito led a team that oversaw supply chain analysis, site selection and facility optimization for Littlejohn & Co./Newgistics.
The firm and his responsibilities have grown significantly since then. Fazekas has been instrumental in creating the approximately 60- million-square-foot portfolio of prime industrial assets scattered throughout the hypercompetitive Eastern US market. Less than a decade later, he leads a large team that has deployed approximately $4.5 billion in the Eastern US within the industrial sector, his biggest accomplishment. As co-chief investment officer/industrial and head of the Eastern region, he manages a team of nearly two dozen investment and execution professionals based in New Jersey, Chicago and Atlanta with responsibility for sourcing and execution of all industrial investments in the Eastern US.
Before joining Black Creek Group, Fazekas spent two years at Panattoni Development, where he helped clients weather the economic downturn of 2008. Previously, he spent six years at RREEF Management, which he joined straight out of the New York University’ real estate finance and investment master’s degree program.
Foster’s team has been involved in many transactions across North America that showcase the team members’ ability to work through challenging situations. The team is known for its determination and creativity in selling assets that are difficult to market, and an ability to build strong personal relationships. The Avison Young approach is focused on a strategic advisory platform that encourages brokers to examine all aspects of the transaction—from marketing assets to understanding the nuances of its clients’ businesses and long-term investment objectives.
Foster’s approach is also focused on sharing valuable market research and knowledge that can help shape the course of the clients’ business decisions. His group regularly tracks information on industrial investment, construction, financing, and foreign allocation of funds for report insight.
Foster has won numerous awards and is a member of ULI and NAIOP, and is an Indiana University Kelly School of Business Center for Real Estate Studies board member.
He specializes in the sale of investment properties for institutional clients, as well as tenant representation for corporate clients. He recently assumed additional responsibilities as the global head for CBRE’s industrial and logistics sector and has consistently ranked as a top producer nationally in investment sales, representing some of the country’s largest corporations, global investors, pension fund advisors and REITs. He has leased or sold more than 815 million square feet and approximately 6,600 acres of development sites in more than 60 US cities, Mexico, Europe and South America. In 2018 alone, he led the national partners team which worked on deals ranging in size from $1 million to $3.5 billion, totaling 253 million square feet and $19 billion in value.
Not only does Fraker teach at the University of Texas at Austin and Southern Methodist University, but he also is a member of the board of directors for Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep. He has won countless honors and served as the council chair of ULI from 2012 to 2014.
Heitman re-imagined industrial buildings and cities based on locally sourced manufacturing centers that directly link producers and consumers in a closed-loop economy, bridging the gap between developer and corporate user. He designed integrated workplace environments within very cost-competitive markets. These commodity class structures have evolved into integrated workplaces designed around democratized workforces, automation and robotics.
Heitman designed the first LEED-certified industrial building in Illinois in 2004, the largest LEED CI facility in the US for Kraft Foods and a regional distribution facility for SC Johnson & Sons, which received NAIOP’s National Development of the Year Award in 2009. In addition to countless other awards, he received the 2016 CoreNet Global Sustainable Leadership Award as architect of record in collaboration with William McDonough + Partners for the Method Soap Factory, the first manufacturing building to receive LEED Platinum. On its roof, Heitman designed the largest fully automated hydroponic rooftop farm in the US for Gotham Greens, and is now working on rolling out this prototype in five other states.
HFF’S INDUSTRIAL TEAM With a history of performance spanning more than 40 years, HFF offers the services of more than 1,000 experienced industry professionals throughout the United States and Western Europe. HFF’s proprietary database, CapTrack, provides knowledge of both debt and equity markets. This system tracks more than $100 billion of transactional volume that HFF is continuously pricing in the market, as well as the investment objectives of the most active and largest capital providers, both domestically and internationally.
HFF is an experienced real estate investment advisor in the public-to-private domain and has been actively involved in the largest of such transactions during the past several years. The firm averages more than three closings per business day with transactions ranging from $1 million to more than $2.2 billion. HFF’s numerous business lines enable it to be a one-stop shop intermediary for many different types of real estate transactions.
HFF incorporates capital markets knowledge with local real estate expertise to successfully complete any type of real estate transaction, regardless of size or complexity. HFF consistently maintains the capital markets relationships critical to accomplishing clients’ specific needs.
The company’s unique knowledge, broad capital markets relationships and national platform enable it to arrange the most favorable financing/equity raise or sale for a commercial property. Its industrial team has closed more than $50 billion in more than 2,480 transactions since 1998. The team has 140 industrial specialists who are experts in all types of industrial properties, including warehouse, flex, R&D, manufacturing, cold storage and telecommunications.
From 2014 through 2018, Mortgage Bankers Association ranked HFF the number one capital markets Intermediary. Additionally, in 2018, the company was ranked first in seven additional categories–total loan originations, insurance company originator, REITs, mortgage REITs, investment funds originator, originator for third parties, total direct originations and seconds/mezzanine/preferred equity structures.
HFF consistently ranks as one of Real Estate Alert’s and Real Capital Analytics top four investment sales brokerages for overall sales as well as for office, multi-housing and retail properties. On a local level, HFF associates have been featured as 40 under 40 winners, top women in CRE, top brokers and more.
HFF seeks to positively impact communities by contributing time, energy and skills to various community service projects throughout the year.
JLL’S URBAN LOGISTICS GROUP Rob Kossar and his team at JLL noticed tenant representation clients were increasingly frustrated with local brokerages in the area. Industrial tenants viewed the four states of Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania as one large interconnected market and wanted to work with brokers who could serve their real estate needs throughout the region. The region comprises approximately 1.54 billion square feet of industrial space, representing the largest US industrial market. In response, the team formed the Northeast Industrial Region in early 2017.
With nearly 30 years of experience in industrial real estate, Kossar leads the capital markets, brokerage, property management, and project and development services in the region. He is also part of the Industrial Capital Markets team for the Americas, personally responsible for leading the capital markets business in the Northeastern US. In addition to his local leadership responsibilities, Kossar remains an active industrial investment sales and leasing broker. As an urban core expert, he focuses closely on last- mile trends and how this space will lead the way for the next wave of industrial product. Kossar is a board member of NAIOP NJ and an SIOR, was named a CoStar Power Broker in New Jersey (2004–2016), and awarded Deal of the Year by NAIOP in 2013 and 2015 after several years of being a finalist. In 2017, Kossar accepted the industry impact award on behalf of JLL from NAIOP and has received numerous SIOR recognitions.
David Knee has more than 30 years of experience in industrial real estate. He is a vice chairman with JLL’s Northeast Industrial Region, responsible for overseeing the growth of the industrial brokerage practice for 43 brokers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York. He is also practice leader for JLL’s 3PL vertical. Knee is the vice chair of JLL National Industrial Council and a member of the JLL Broker Leadership Council. In addition, Knee is a member of SIOR, CSCMP, RILA and NAIOP in NJ and PA.
Adam Citron has more than more than 19 years of experience in industrial real estate. He is a managing director with JLL’s Northeast Industrial Region, specializing in providing logistics and supply chain solutions, transaction management and brokerage services for institutional landlords and clients. Citron has been a Costar Power Broker for 15 years, a JLL Top Gun from 2015-2018, a JLL Northeast Industrial Region MVP award winner in 2015 and 2016, and a co-MVP in 2017.
Leslie Lanne has more than 19 years of experience in industrial real estate. She is a managing director with JLL’s Northeast Industrial Region, specializing in institutional landlord and tenant representation in the sale and leasing of industrial real estate. Lanne is also the lead for JLL’s Urban Infill practice and was named a JLL Top Gun in 2018.
He has consistently employed the latest technology tools to advance commercial real estate for the past 36 years. Juncadella took this approach a step further and shared his knowledge with fellow brokers at SIOR National Conferences. In recognition of this influence, SIOR awarded him the 2015 Innovator of the Year Award. Florida International University/FIU awarded him Entrepreneur of the Year in 2015 and inducted him into the FIU Business Hall of Fame.
Even in the midst of the 2009 recession, Juncadella maintained Fairchild Partners as a privately owned independent company. He has been influential in shaping the skyline of South Florida through deals with Facebook, Ryder, Amazon, American Express and Delta Airlines. Juncadella also served on the boards of SIOR Florida, Commercial Industrial Association of South Florida and Realtor’s Commercial Alliance.
He is currently the lead broker of three new industrial parks consisting of 2.8 million square feet of class-A industrial product. Juncadella was the lead broker representing Centergate II, a 602,000-square-foot class-A industrial development in Hialeah which was named NAIOP’s 2016 Building of the Year. In 2018, he was involved in nearly 1 million square feet of sales and lease transactions.
Since 2012, he has been a faculty member of Colliers University, the firm’s internal training platform, along with designing and moderating presentations at Colliers’ Industrial Conferences. McGregor also developed a specialized logistics and transportation solutions practice group within the Colliers industrial platform. Following acceptance, he and the board determined a certification of expertise would infuse legitimacy. They developed a curriculum that aligned with the logistics certification offered by the University of Houston and provided classes taught by University of Houston professors through Colliers University. More than 100 Colliers brokers gained certification through this program, which was recently recertified in partnership with Georgia Institute of Technology.
McGregor has received many of the industry’s highest honors and within Colliers, he’s been in the Everest Club for the past nine years. McGregor’s first co-authored book was “Hiring a Commercial Broker,” and his subsequent co-authored book with Condon is “Exceeding Your Expectations: An Executive’s Guide to Finding the Right Commercial Brokerage Team and How to Avoid a Real Estate Disaster”.
Upon a finalized deal in Hawaii, Meyer has now completed a transaction in every state. During the past two years, he completed 136 transactions totaling 3.8 million square feet and $195 million in total volume.
Meyer excels in marketing distressed assets and managing receiverships, and has a deep expertise in the corporate services space. NAI Mertz has managed 100-plus receivership and workout assignments during the past two years. Some of his clients include TD Bank, C-III Capital, MasTec and Empire Today.
Meyer proudly champions a commitment to ethics, values, continuous learning and client retention. He serves as the director of brokerage, heads up the firm’s corporate services team, is an SIOR, a member of the NAI Industrial Council, and actively mentors junior brokers. Meyer was named one of NAI Global’s 2018 top producers and to the NAI Global Hall of Fame, and achieved NAI Global Elite status on six occasions.
Meyer founded the CRESTAR Alliance, focused on threading Six Sigma processes through the lifecycle of a real estate event.
NEWMARK KNIGHT FRANK Bret Hardy, Jim Linn and Kevin Shannon team up on the sale of Western US institutional quality industrial assets, the most coveted and supply-constrained property sector. So far this year, the Newmark Knight Frank team has completed $216 million in industrial property sales totaling more than 763,000 square feet as of the early part of the second quarter. That number is already half of all of the industrial asset sales the team completed in 2018 (approximately $431 million and nearly 3.24 million square feet).
Hardy joined the company in 2017 at the firm’s downtown Los Angeles office, where he serves as an executive managing director and member of the Western region capital markets team. He focuses exclusively on managing institutional industrial investment sales in the western region. A 27-year industry veteran, Hardy has served as the lead broker on eight multistate/nationwide single-tenant portfolio dispositions and completed transactions with a combined value of $4.6 billion. He brings a deep understanding of structured finance vehicles and has extensive expertise in single-tenant net lease properties. Hardy joined Newmark Knight Frank after more than 16 years at Colliers International in Los Angeles.
Linn joined Newmark Knight Frank in early 2019 as an executive managing director in the firm’s downtown Los Angeles office, where he focuses on industrial capital markets. He brings more than 30 years of experience investing in industrial investment. Prior to NKF, Linn was founding partner and president of the West region of Talos Capital, an industrial core plus, value add and opportunistic national investment firm specializing in tier I and tier II US markets.
As the co-head of US capital markets for Newmark Knight Frank, Shannon leads a team of 31 professionals focused on the dispositions of investment properties across asset classes for investors in 16 different markets throughout the Western US. In the course of his 35-plus-year career, Shannon has sold more than $65 billion of office, industrial, self-storage, retail, land and mixed-use assets. His experience includes 100% and partial interest sales and recapitalizations, as well as joint venture transactions. Shannon joined Newmark Knight Frank after nearly 10 years at CBRE, where he served as vice chairman and managing director for the West Coast institutional investment group and led the Western US office vertical.
PACIFIC INDUSTRIAL Dan Floriani and Neil Mishurda formed Pacific Industrial with a vision to create a company that broke the traditional build-and-sell model prevalent in private real estate companies. The concept was centered on one key principle–to create an alignment of interests. With that simple objective, Floriani and Mishurda designed an environment where common goals produce development and acquisition sites that are accretive to any long-term portfolio. The alignment produces a benefit to capital partners, helps attract best-in-class tenants and ultimately facilitates developments that can withstand any business cycle. As a result, the duo has assembled a portfolio of irreplaceable leased assets and developed an empowering culture.
Both oversee strategic and long-term planning, along with operations, while Floriani focuses on project design and functionality. Mishurda focuses on business development and overall development standards.
Pacific Industrial completed a $213.5 million industrial property sale in the Inland Empire. The transaction is one of the largest non-portfolio sales in California in the past 24 months based on total dollar value. The sale also sets a new record for one of the lowest cap rates in the Inland Empire at 3.68%. Floriani and Mishurda developed the 1.5-million-square-foot property from the ground up, leased it to FedEx and LG Electronics, and sold it to an institutional investor. This sale sets a new milestone for Pacific Industrial, now having completed more than $1 billion in transactions since the company’s inception in 2012.
Pacific Industrial is committed not only to the environment, but the people on it, and to the protection, preservation and clean-up of the Pacific Ocean. In fact, that founding principle is the genesis of its company name. Based on this core value, Pacific Industrial will donate a portion of its earnings to nonprofit companies that share this vision.
In addition, the executives of Pacific Industrial are actively involved with nonprofit organizations and encourage all employees to take time to give back. Mishurda is actively involved with The Ability Experience, a nonprofit organization supporting people with disabilities, and Floriani is a founding member of Drive For A Cause, a nonprofit group which raises money for cancer research. In 2017, Floriani was named Business Leader of the Year by Time for a Change Foundation.
Pacific Industrial has emphasized designing quality facilities that will remain relevant more than 10 years from now. Also, Pacific Industrial believes tenants are looking for working environments with office-oriented features, aesthetics and nearby retail amenities. Accordingly, Pacific Industrial is providing forward-looking features that are rare in industrial projects, including two-story glass tower entrances, extremely large truck courts, above-standard parking counts, 3% skylight coverage, EV charging stations, solar-ready roofs and even art features.
Perrier specializes in industrial, office and land sales. Within CBRE’s Institutional Group she has facilitated many complex multi-market dispositions including sales of more than 12,000 acres and other major sales and portfolios. In 2018, Perrier and her team sold 79 million square feet totaling $6.7 billion in 2018 transaction volume, representing 52 clients and 44 unique buyers.
Perrier has also been on the board of CBRE’s Women’s Network since it began more than 15 years ago and is a strong proponent of encouraging women in business.
PREMIER DESIGN + BUILD GROUP Alan Zocher, Alec Zocher and Brian Paul saw an opportunity in 2004 to make a big difference in the industrial general contracting world by creating a new breed of company that would be the single point of communication for clients’ design and construction needs. With that, PREMIER Design + Build Group was born.
They identified three overarching goals: save time, reduce risks and overall costs, and deliver a final product that exceeds expectations. The firm landed its first client shortly thereafter and put the concept-to-completion success strategy to the test on Damen Marketplace, a complete warehouse design and construction spec project in Chicago for SVE Corp.
Since then, the founders have grown from a group of three to a team of more than 90 employees, with revenues approaching $400 million in 2019.
As president and co-founder, Alan Zocher oversees the firm’s management team and leads the company’s strategic planning, providing direction for the company’s future. He is involved in PREMIER’s projects from conceptual site plan through project completion.
Alec Zocher manages the company’s overall design and construction services and the day-to-day activities including estimating, design coordination, permitting, scheduling and contract administration , along with overseeing its Northeast Division.
Paul works with clients to successfully implement and manage the planning, design, approval and construction stages of projects.
During the past three years, the firm has more than doubled its revenue, growing from $130 million in 2015 to more than $280 million in 2018. In the span of 15 years, the three owners/founders have built a firm from the ground up that is on track to exceed $400 million in revenue in 2019. They have done so by building long-term client relationships, identifying key growth areas such as logistics and investing in the long-term success of employees.
The firm was named General Contractor of the Year by NAIOP Chicago in 2014 for its three highest-profile projects that year: a 365,359-square-foot LEED Silver industrial build-to-suit for FREEMAN in McCook, IL; a 406,212-square-foot speculative industrial facility in Libertyville, IL and a 363,711-square-foot industrial build-to-suit in Naperville, IL.
All are proud supporters and ambassadors for Saving Tiny Hearts Society, which was founded in 2005 by Paul and his wife after their first child was born with severe complex congenital heart disease. Since then, the families have worked tirelessly to fulfill the mission of raising seed money for grossly under-funded, lifesaving grassroots research into congenital heart defects, which totals nearly $2 million dollars and 24 research projects funded.
She has more than 15 years of experience in sustainable development, technology transfer, renewable energy, climate change, greenhouse gas accounting, and sustainability planning and reporting in the US and Latin America. Renne-Malone joined Prologis in 2014 as VP of sustainability to develop and implement a global sustainability strategy for the company.
She communicates the company’s environmental stewardship and social responsibility efforts throughout Prologis and to key stakeholders. Renne-Malone also oversees the development of annual carbon footprint and sustainability reporting to various organizations.
Following Prologis’ success as the first industrial real estate developer to have a WELL-certified building, Renne-Malone and Prologis colleagues are developing a standard for industrial park development to include increased amenities and access to healthy features for warehouse workers.
Renne-Malone launched Prologis’ Community Workforce Initiative to address the labor shortage in the logistics industry and help underprivileged populations. She facilitated an ongoing global partnership between Prologis and Habitat for Humanity, and conceptualized and successfully launched Prologis’ Customer Sustainability Advisory Council.
In 2017 and 2018, Rodriguez earned salesperson of the year. She leased more than 1.4 million square feet and closed on the purchase of two future development sites in 2018. Rodriguez also became a member of the Masters Club, a group comprised of the company’s top five leasing representatives that year.
In 2014, 2015 and 2017, Rodriguez was the dealmaker of the year, closing the most leasing transactions. She was a NAIOP industrial broker of the year finalist in 2015, 2016 and 2018.
Rodriguez serves on NAIOP’s South Florida’s board of directors and chairs its Awards of Excellence committee. She also is president-elect of NAIOP, a member of its developers’ forum and a developing leaders’ mentor. Rodriguez is on the board of directors of the Commercial Industrial Association of South Florida. She is a trustee of the Pompano Beach Chamber of Commerce, a corporate investor on the Beacon Council and a business development board investor for Palm Beach County.
SEALY & CO. Famously anecdotal, the humble yet innovative company began with an early Sealy entrepreneur positioned outside distributing matchbooks with the real estate company’s contact information. For nearly 75 years, Sealy & Co. has maintained a tradition much like the familial roots from which it originated.
This fourth generation company’s $1.5 billion+ portfolio is comprised of more than 25 million square feet of industrial real estate spanning more than 20 markets throughout the southeast, south-central, southwest, and Midwest regions of the United States. Sealy & Co. has been successful in its return on its investments, sustainability efforts, and steadily increasing transaction volume and market presence.
In fact, for the past 30 years, Sealy has generated an annual average return on equity for completed transactions of 23.9% and has a 20% average annual growth rate. Sealy completed almost $400 million in total transaction volume in the last year alone and manages a pipeline of more than $3.5 billion in investment opportunities. Included in this number is the volume of strategic dispositions executed: 23% of transactions in 2018 were dispositions, which triples the disposition square footage of the previous year, signifying the growth of the portfolios and the maturing of assets within the assets’ life cycles.
Environmentally, Sealy strives to provide cost savings to its tenants and reduce carbon footprints by utilizing sustainability features that improve financial and operating inefficiencies. Notably, Sealy has updated more than 8.5 million square feet of lighting in an effort to reduce energy costs, and many Sealy-owned buildings have energy-efficient cool roofs that offer higher solar reflectance, reduce heat transfer and drastically decrease energy costs associated with fans and rooftop unit run times.
For more than seven decades, Sealy has utilized a disciplined investment approach in acquiring and managing commercial real estate assets primarily in the industrial sector. Today, Sealy & Co. acquires, develops and redevelops regional distribution warehouse, industrial/flex and other commercial properties. In the last three years, Sealy has successfully closed on 100% of properties put under contract. This close rate, achieved on dozens of transactions in this time frame, is a testament to the carefully designed strategies with which Sealy operates. The investment services team spends weeks judiciously vetting, evaluating and sourcing deals on assets which align with its portfolio strategy.
As Sealy & Company continues to expand and acquire more properties, forming new portfolios was vital. With that, Sealy has strategically instituted multiple vehicles, marking continued portfolio diversification through market, property, tenant and lease term diversification. Moreover, the firm has made considerable investments in new technologies in the areas of financial technology, real-time market and performance data, marketing integration, and security.
Scott P. Sealy Sr. is chairman and CEO of Sealy & Co. and oversees corporate governance, strategic planning, and corporate development. He joined the company in 1968 and is particularly recognized with respect to the acquisition, repositioning and ground-up development of industrial facilities. In 2018, he was inducted into the Junior Achievement of North Louisiana Business Hall of Fame and was named a 2018 Junior Achievement Laureate for his work in the community. Scott Sealy holds a multitude of other distinctions and has received numerous industry honors.
Mark P. Sealy is president of Sealy & Co. He joined the company in 1981 and currently oversees enterprise-critical functions through the company’s chief operations officer and chief financial officer. Mark Sealy has extensive experience in real estate brokerage, acquisitions, ownership structuring, syndication, financing, land and building development, property management, asset management and dispositions which have involved the capitalization of more than $1 billion into real estate syndications.
A consistent top producer, Smith has been among the top 5% company wide since joining the Ontario office of Lee & Associates and the top 1% for the past 15 years. He was given the company’s Circle of Excellence Award in its first three years of existence as the company’s top-producing industrial broker. Smith has advised for and been involved in more than 38 million square feet of leasing and sale transactions, in addition to more than 2,700 acres in land sale transactions.
In addition to his brokerage influence, Smith co-founded Associates Equity Funds, which is a vehicle for Lee & Associates agents to source and invest in commercial properties across the country. The board is now comprised of Lee agents with senior level brokerage experience, and since its inception three years ago, it has closed more than 17 properties totaling 450,000 square feet with an approximate market value of $75 million. One-fourth of the agents in Lee are investors in the various funds.
VOIT REAL ESTATE SERVICES’ ZEHNER-DAVENPORT INDUSTRIAL GROUP Mitch Zehner and Seth Davenport are key influencers because they set the achievement bar in North Orange County industrial brokerage. They are the standard by which competitors judge their own performances, which makes their influence on the industry undeniable. The duo has 45 years of experience and are highly respected by clients and peers for their work ethic, integrity and professionalism.
Zehner started his career in real estate in 1984 with a primary focus on landlord and seller representation. He engenders so much trust with investor clients that they often give him complete autonomy in negotiations, as if he was the owner of their properties. Zehner’s fellow competitors respect him for his market knowledge, command of the technical aspects of the business and his penchant for doing the right thing.
Davenport entered the business back in 2003, trained under Zehner, and they have been together ever since. His larger-than-life presence and reputation as a “character” pairs well with his understanding of the business and ability to build rapport with everyone with whom he interacts. In fact, many clients do business with Davenport because they like him as much as they trust him. Like Zehner, he is a true expert in the mechanics of the business and also adds a flair for creativity in leveraging current marketing techniques.
The Zehner-Davenport team currently has more than 1.3 million square feet of industrial space under listing contract. In total, the team has leased or sold more than 47 million square feet of industrial space in 3,712 transactions throughout Southern California. They both served on Voit’s board of directors as the firm transitioned to its current broker-owned structure.
They also direct the activities of five other brokers on the team, along with two full-time marketing assistants. The team recently completed the sale of 10 buildings totaling more than 900,000 square feet on 45 acres at the former Beckman-Coulter campus in Fullerton. This is the largest industrial ground-up development project in Orange County. The project was sold out upon completion at record-high prices to a combination of owner-users and institutional investors. More than 976,754 square feet of the project is now being offered for lease through the Zehner-Davenport team. Perennial CoStar Power Brokers, both have been Voit’s top-producing team every year since 2003 and shared top honors in 2018 as Voit’s highest individual earners. Each has earned the title of executive vice president, Voit’s highest honor shared by fewer than a dozen professionals in Voit’s 48-year history. They are Voit’s number one team companywide for the past 13 years.