Brennan Targets Companies That Want to be 'Asset Light' in New Initiative

Brennan Investment Group, a Chicago-based private real estate investment firm, is rolling out a new initiative under its Corporate Real Estate Solutions brand.

Brennan aims to facilitate supply chain reconfigurations and monetize real estate holdings as well as help companies improve supply chain efficiency by purchasing surplus industrial real estate. In addition, it will provide customized build-to-suits and become involved in both long- and short-term sale leasebacks.

The initiative will continue to serve such traditional needs of corporations as sale leasebacks. Robert Vanecko, managing principal and head of Brennan’s single-tenant net lease division, has noted a desire to be “asset light” as a key driver among tenants. “This liberates new capital for our tenant and also increases the value of the tenant’s operating business,” he says. “The presence of private equity firms purchasing operating companies has accelerated the ‘asset light’ operating model.” 

Through its single-tenant net lease division, Brennan has acquired over 20 million square feet of mission critical buildings.

With a nod to our present moment, Brennan Investment Group chairman and co-founder Michael Brennan observes, “Corporations, not investors, own the majority of our nation’s industrial land and buildings. Further, more than at any time in history, supply chain designs are rapidly evolving with the goal of minimizing disruptions. Whether caused by port-of-call labor disputes, geopolitical uncertainties, or supply disruptions from pandemics, Corporate America has begun a supply chain reconfiguration process that will require a decade to complete. Brennan will offer its platform, its capital, and its expertise to rebuild the backbone of our nation’s industrial infrastructure.”

Brennan also emphasizes advances in technology, particularly automation, that will entice companies to repatriate manufacturing jobs back to the US, having left due to the lure of low cost labor countries. “The technology catalysts that drove e-commerce will do the same for the manufacturing sector,” he says.

“The essence of CRES is quite simple: to help corporations. If that means purchasing a single surplus asset, we’ll do it. If it’s a build-to-suit, an expansion of an existing facility, a portfolio of assets, or any combination of that, we’ll do it. We want to say ‘yes’ as often as we can,” explained Scott McKibben, Brennan’s CIO and managing principal.

Since 2010, Brennan Investment Group has acquired over $4 billion in industrial real estate. The company’s current portfolio spans 29 states and encompasses 44 million square feet. The firm’s management team has invested in over 4,000 properties covering more than 60 cities throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.