It would be easy to say that now is a great time to be in the industrial real estate asset space. Demand, pricing, rents—they all favor the industry right now. As one example of the sector’s great fundamentals: rents are projected to increase as much as 10% or more this year, per Prologis. But experts in this category do have some juggling to do. Tenants are eager for space and it is not easy to satisfy them all. Developable land for industrial use is relatively scarce and the prices for sale lease-backs are rising as developers are seeking out any property available for their purposes. Navigating this environment takes skill. With these challenges in mind, we have selected our annual group of industrial influencers. We choose, as we always do, based on accomplishments and impacts the influencers have made on the industry. As you read through these stories, we believe you will agree with our decisions, hard as they were to make.
INDIVIDUALS
TEAMS
AVISON YOUNG INDUSTRIAL CAPITAL MARKETS Avison Young principal Erik Foster leads the firm’s industrial capital markets team, which executes transactions across all 50 states. Since the team’s founding in 2001, it has completed $7 billion in transactions and has worked with an impressive list of industrial trailblazers, including Prologis, First Industrial, AEW, Heitman, Clarion, JP Morgan and Liberty Property Trust. In 2020, the firm closed its largest transaction to date, the sale of a 53-property trucking portfolio totaling 1.7 million square feet for CenterPoint Properties. The portfolio was located in 17 states with representation in key industrial markets. This year, the team continues to complete numerous sale-leaseback transactions with strong demand in the food sector, and it expects to see more of these transactions throughout the year. As the leader of a team with impressive transactional history, Foster was named one of Avison Young’s 2020 Top Producers Circle of Excellence and he is a multiple-time Avison Young Chairman’s Circle of Excellence award winner. In addition to its transactional record, the industrial capital markets team is also committed to ESG practices. The team has partnered with the Friends of the Forest organization to clear 1.5 acres of brush in Possum Hollow Woods Forest Preserve in LaGrange Park, IL, and it participated in green activities for Earth Day.
COLLIERS’ NORTHWEST INDUSTRIAL SERVICE TEAM While many of industrial’s top players are laser-focused on the Southern California market, the Colliers Northwest industrial service team serves as a rainmaker in San Joaquin County, or what it refers to as “the Inland Empire of Northern California.” The six-person team includes executive managing director Michael Goldstein, EVP Ryan McShane, EVP Greig Lagomarsino, EVP Gregory O’Leary, SVP Wes Widmer, VP Alex Hoek and senior research analyst Kyle Mecker. Collectively, they have completed 393 transactions with total gross revenue of $31.7 million since January 2018. In 2020 alone, the team generated a record-breaking $9.6 million in gross revenue, including three separate transactions each valuing $100 million. As such, last year, each of the brokerage team members earned a Colliers Everest award, which recognizes the top 10% of all Colliers professionals in brokerage. This year, the team is already on track to exceed its 2020 performance. Among its biggest projects, the team represented Prologis’ International Park of Commerce in an 1,800-acre land acquisition, development and leasing. Today, the project totals nine million square feet of warehouse and distribution space. The team holds memberships to SIOR, NAIOP, International Warehouse Logistics Association, ULI, Warehousing Education Research Council and the Council of Supply Chain Professional, as well as Colliers internal industrial groups, Colliers Logistics & Transportation Solutions Group and Colliers National Industrial Advisory Board.
COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES INC. LEROY BREINHOLT TEAM Leroy Breinholt’s team at Commercial Properties Inc. is one of the leading industrial brokerage teams in the Arizona market. The seven-person team includes president and designated broker Breinholt, SVP Eric Jones, VP Darin Edwards, and sales and leasing associates David Bean, Cory Sposi, Cory Breinholt and Kelli Jelinek. The team has more than 350 years of cumulative experience and many have had longstanding careers at CPI. Breinholt has 32 years of experience and it is regularly named by CoStar as one of the top Phoenix industrial deal makers. In 2020, Breinholt and his team focused on advising clients through the turbulence of the pandemic. Breinholt’s take: If we all prepare, then even on the downside there is room for growth and opportunity. That turned out to be true. Last year, he and the team completed 784 total transactions totaling 3.6 million square feet in the Phoenix metropolitan area. When they aren’t busy closing deals, the team works within the community to support local food banks and homeless shelters, and it hosts an annual toy drive that collects toys for children of Arizona’s local deployed, injured or fallen military, police and firefighter families.
CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD SOUTH FLORIDA INDUSTRIAL TEAM The eight-person South Florida industrial team at Cushman & Wakefield is known for setting records. The team—which consists of executive managing directors Chris Metzger, Richard F. Etner and Christopher P. Thomson; senior director Matthew G. McAllister; senior associate Merritt Etner; associate Alex VanDresser; senior brokerage coordinator Julie Miller; and brokerage coordinator Uilani Kauhi—closed 94 sale and lease transactions in 2020 valuing more than $313 million; a 20% increase from 2019. The team works with a wide range of clients from start-up manufacturing businesses to large distribution companies. Its biggest deals in 2020 include the sale of a 99-acre development site at Palm Beach Park of Commerce for a one-million-square-foot distribution center development as a build-to-suit for an e-commerce user. The lease was the largest on record in Palm Beach County, and it is expected to create hundreds of jobs for the region. The impressive transaction activity has earned the team several accolades. Metzger, Richard Etner and Thomson were all named 2021 Power Brokers by the South Florida Journal and they were named the top 100 brokers for Cushman & Wakefield’s Americas brokers in 2020. In addition to several industry memberships, the team participates in local charities, including the Boys & Girls Club, Toys for Tots, Boca Helping Hands and the American Cancer Society.
HSA COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE’S INDUSTRIAL SERVICES DIVISION This year, HSA Commercial Real Estate’s industrial services division celebrates its 40th year in business. Founded in 1981 by chairman Jack Shaffer and led today by vice chairman and CEO Robert Smietana, the firm has built a portfolio of 16 million square feet and boasts a current construction pipeline of five million square feet on 400 acres of developable land. The company has long been a trailblazer in the market. In 2009, it was the first to develop class-A warehouse space at the Illinois-Wisconsin border between Chicago and Milwaukee with Park 94, a 184-acre multiuse business park in Pleasant Prairie. Today, Seda International Packaging Group and InSinkErator are among the tenants at the property, and Amazon, Uline and Haribo are all occupants in the area, illustrating the popularity of the market. Recently, the team closed a series of impressive lease transactions. Last summer, it brokered one of the largest industrial leases of the year in Chicago with a 381,874-square-foot long-term lease with Kenco Logistics Services at the Heartland Corporate Center in Shore-wood, IL, and this spring, the team signed a full-building 472,176-square-foot lease with Visual Pak Cos. at Bristol Highlands Commerce Center in Wisconsin.
JLL INDUSTRIAL With 610 professionals managing every segment of the industrial business, from brokerage and capital markets to property management and valuations advisory, JLL’s industrial division is one of the top teams in the nation. Craig Meyer, president of industrial brokerage of the Americas and Debra Bonebrake, president of US industrial property management, lead the team and oversaw an impressive year. In 2020, the capital markets industrial team completed $15.1 billion in transactions and $8.3 billion in industrial investment sales advisory transactions. Last year, Real Estate Alert ranked the industrial capital markets team as second in the nation for industrial brokerage, and the Mortgage Banker Association ranked the team first in the nation for total originations. In 2020, the team’s 380 industrial brokers completed 4,889 leasing transactions totaling $19 billion in volume, and the industrial property management group managed 435 million square feet, while expanding its client base and adding 100 million square feet to its portfolio. In 2021, the industrial team has already closed equally as noteworthy transactions. It completed a $1 billion recapitalization of 88 industrial assets for Partners Group, and it brokered the $201 million sale of a Pennsylvania distribution center on behalf of a joint-venture between Rockefeller Group and PPCP LLC. This year, the industrial team has already recorded a record-high 85.6 million square feet of net absorption in the first quarter.
LEE & ASSOCIATES’ INDUSTRIAL TEAM OF FORT MYERS Founders and principals Derek Bornhorst, Jerry Messonnier and Bob Johnston lead Lee & Associates’ industrial team of Fort Myers. The team has a combined 65 years of experience and specializes in both sale and lease transactions, with deals ranging from strategic planning and land acquisition to building design and lease-up or sale of a project. All of the team’s brokers are SIOR-certified and bring a wealth of local knowledge to each transaction. Last year, the team assisted the firm in completing 750,000 square feet in lease transactions totaling $45 million in sales volume. Among the team’s recent transactions is representing Terminal Access Park LLC in the $4.3 million purchase of 80 acres near the Southwest Florida International Airport in Ft. Myers, for which Bornhorst and Johnston brokered the deal. Thanks to population and business growth in Southwest Florida, the team is expecting another strong year in 2021. “I see the market here as being very robust for the next several years and I think it’s only going to further take off,” says Bornhorst, who has been with the team in Fort Myers since the office opened a decade ago. Bornhorst was named president of the office earlier this year.
LINK LOGISTICS REAL ESTATE’S ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY TEAM Blackstone established Link Logistics Real Estate in 2019, and the industrial environmental sustainability team was born in 2020, which comprises Sam Stockdale, VP of environmental sustainability; Kathleen Mancini, national ESG operations manager; Ram Khamma, director of energy data analytics and environmental sustainability; and Justine Zienowicz, analyst of environmental sustainability. The team’s infancy has not stopped it from quickly rising to influencer status. With more than 6,100 customers and a company portfolio of more than 400 million square feet, the team oversees the sustainability efforts for the largest portfolio of logistics real estate assets in the US. Early this year, Link Logistics launched three new aggressive and industry-setting sustainability initiatives and goals. It has committed to powering 100% of all operations with renewable electricity by 2024, benchmarking 100% of the company’s building portfolio in EPA’s ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, and ultimately, to achieving carbon-neutral operations by 2025. This is building on an already strong track record, which includes meeting its goal of benchmarking 100% of Link’s properties, obtaining Energy Star certifications for qualified properties in its portfolio and accelerating LED retrofit plans by committing to replace all lights with LED or high-efficiency light fixtures by 2025. In April, the team also announced that all new developments would be built to LEED standards, further pushing its sustainability efforts forward.
NAI JAMES E. HANSON TEAM PERKINS & TODD NAI James E. Hanson VPs Scott K. Perkins and Christopher D. Todd launched team Perkins & Todd in 2013. During the team’s tenure, it has closed 70 industrial sales and lease transactions totaling 2.8 million square feet and $273 million in value. The team, also consisting of associates Dena Scott and William Ericksen, had a stellar year in 2020. The team closed a series of noteworthy transactions in the Northern and Central New Jersey market, representing institutional clients such as Arsenal Capital Partners, Kidd & Co., CenterPoint, Duke Realty, Blackstone and Kohlberg & Co. With deep local market knowledge, the team is able to identify opportunities in secondary and tertiary industrial submarkets that are poised for substantial growth. The team’s greatest accomplishment of the year was the complicated $24.5 million sale-leaseback of the 102,000-square-foot, 66-96 East Union St. in East Rutherford, NJ, which it closed in less than six months. Additionally, the team represented CenterPoint Properties in the complex acquisition of an 8.3-acre trophy last-mile site in Elizabeth, NJ. In total, the team closed more than $100 million in industrial sales and leasing volume in 2020.
NEWMARK CAPITAL MARKETS INDUSTRIAL – WEST REGION Executive managing directors Bret Hardy, Jim Linn and Andrew Briner make up the Western region industrial team at Newmark. The team, which is under the umbrella of the firm’s Western region capital markets group, was formed in 2020 and has already exceeded expectations, which is not surprising considering the team’s background. Hardy has 27 years of industrial experience and has completed transactions valued at $4.6 billion; Linn has been named San Fernando Valley Broker of the Year, Los Angeles Metro Broker of the Year and he is ranked among the top 2% of all industrial brokers in the US; and Briner has completed transactions exceeding $24.5 billion in consideration. Since 2019, the team has completed $2.9 billion in transactional volume totaling 29 industrial asset deals and nine industrial land deals. In the last year, the team has worked together to close several major deals, including the sale of Golden Triangle Industrial Park, an 11-building 2.4-million-square-foot industrial portfolio in North Las Vegas, and Amazon @ Mission Oaks, a two-building 750,000-square-foot property in Camarillo, CA. Collectively, they have completed more than $1.5 billion in industrial transactions on behalf of a wide range of clients, from developers to REITs, private equity, pension fund advisors and private capital. They have notably adapted to new market conditions by expanding their network and leveraging new technology.
TRAMMELL CROW CO.’S NORTHEAST METRO The Northeast Metro team at Trammell Crow Co. is known for recognizing unique opportunities in new markets. Founded in 2005, the team includes managing director Andrew Mele, principal Matt Nunn and VP John Pollock. In the last seven years, the team has developed nearly 18 million square feet of industrial projects, valued at more than $1.5 billion. Some of the most standout developments completed under the team’s supervision include the 1.2-million-square-foot Lehigh Valley Trade Center in Bethlehem, PA; the one-million-square-foot Valley View Trade Center near Scranton, PA; the 1.2-million-square-foot Principio Commerce Center in North East, MD; and the fully-leased one-million-square-foot I-78 Trade Center in Upper Bern, PA. All of these were completed in the last three years. Not only does the team seek out the best sites and submarkets, but it also delivers the spaces in highest demand. In recent years, this has meant serving ecommerce users with properties ranging in size from 100,000 to 400,000 square feet, and the team is focused on delivering sustainable projects that meet the needs of users and the environment. With 40 years of collective experience, the team oversees both speculative and build-to-suit projects, and they have a reputation for delivering on time and on budget.
TRANSWESTERN REAL ESTATE SERVICES’ VIRGINIA INDUSTRIAL TEAM The three-person Virginia industrial team at Transwestern Real Estate Services is one of the firm’s top-producing teams nationally. In the last three years, the team — which is composed of EVPs Caulley Deringer and Stephen Cloud and assistant VP Andrew Hassett — has completed 280 transactions totaling more than 3.5 million square feet with an aggregate value of $3.2 billion The team works with owners to consistently keep vacancy below 3%. On the investment sale side, the team has completed 16 transactions totaling more than $407 million in value in the past three years. The team is currently representing 12 property owners on more than four million square feet of space. The team’s top deals include advising the buyer of an 11.3-acre site in Northern Virginia for the development of a 191,000-square-foot project, and marketing an under-performing 735,000-square-foot property in Woodbridge, VA, driving leasing from 70% to 95% in under two years. Eventually, the property was sold to an institutional investor at favorable terms. This deal volume and the caliber of deals has earned the team CoStar’s Power Broker award for eight consecutive years. The team’s members serve as an NAIOP Northern Virginia Board Member, an NAIOP Developing Leaders committee member and they participate in several local charities.
ORGANIZATIONS
BECKNELL INDUSTRIAL Becknell Industrial has a 30-year history as a developer, owner and property manager of industrial products, and it is working toward owning and operating the largest industrial real estate portfolio in the country. In the last three decades, the company has built a more than 150-property industrial portfolio totaling 23 million square feet, which it operates at nearly 100% occupancy. As a vertically integrated firm, it handles leasing, design, engineering and construction management in-house. The firm’s impressive experience as an industrial leader positioned it to excel during the pandemic last year. Under the leadership of CFO Matt Cohoat, EVP of construction Craig Kouri and SVP of construction Matthew Kelly, Becknell Industrial completed more than five million square feet in leasing transactions, three million square feet of which were with new tenants, and completed $500 million in new development projects. Despite the growth, Becknell Industrial prides itself on operating like a small company by curating a collaborative work environment and a focus on longevity. That is true of both its internal and external culture. The firm maintains close relationships with its tenants and third-party support, and it is an active member of the local community with involvement in NAMI Chicago, Habitat for Humanity, the Don Moyer Boys and Girls Club, Crossroads of America Council and the Humane Society.
BLACK CREEK GROUP Since launching in 1993, Black Creek Group has become a leading owner and operator of industrial space. Under the leadership of Raj Dhanda, the company has acquired and developed institutional-grade industrial products valued at $18.5 billion in high-barrier-to-entry markets in North America. For the past nine years, the firm has averaged more than $1.2 billion in annual industrial property acquisitions and developments — and it didn’t slow down during the pandemic. In 2020, Black Creek Group acquired more than nine million square feet of industrial space, including 367 acres of land to develop 4.8 million square feet of industrial space, and it completed nearly four million square feet of industrial developments. The firm also committed to improving the environmental impact of its properties by completing upgrades to improve energy efficiency and air quality, and it installed LED warehouse lighting across more than 20 million square feet of its portfolio. In April, Black Creek Group produced its second annual Corporate Social Responsibility Report to share its environmental and social impact with its stakeholders. The firm has also continued to make strides toward improving diversity. The Women’s Network at Black Creek Group was involved with more than 14 events in 2020 to promote networking and professional development with attendance totaling 800 people — a 60% increase over 2019. Black Creek Group extends support for its employees outside of the firm as well by encouraging community volunteering and participating in professional industry organizations.
BRIDGE INDUSTRIAL During the last two decades, Bridge Industrial has become one of the leading industrial owners in the nation. It has developed and acquired 50 million square feet of industrial product valued at more than $9.6 billion. More than half of that has come in the past three years, during which Bridge Industrial transacted on more than 31 million square feet totaling $7.4 billion. It operates in some of the country’s largest industrial markets, including Chicago, Miami, New Jersey/New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, and in 2020, the firm expanded into London. As a result of operating in these markets, Bridge Industrial has become an expert in working with complicated or challenging sites and delivering high-quality industrial spaces that satisfy local demand. In 2020, Bridge Industrial closed more than $2.2 billion in transactions, including the acquisition of 10 properties totaling 6.5 million square feet, and it expanded its capital partners under the guidance of CFO Sean Zasche. By May 2021, Bridge Industrial secured its largest commitment to date to target the acquisition of a $1.4 billion portfolio. While growing its footprint and navigating the pandemic, Bridge Industrial has still managed to secure several industry awards, including NAIOP Chicago’s Industrial Speculative Development of the Year and NAIOP New Jersey’s Deal of the Year.
CRG Under the leadership of president Shawn Clark, CRG has developed more than 9,000 acres of land and delivered more than 200 million square feet of commercial assets valuing more than $12 billion. The company operates offices in Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, Southern California, Philadelphia and Seattle, and in 2020, it expanded into Phoenix. Capitalizing on the strong industrial fundamentals, CRG has tripled in size over the past four years; expanding its reach throughout the country and stretching into new cities. Last year, CRG launched US Logistics Fund II. The opportunistic fund will develop class-A logistics properties in core markets, targeting a portfolio value of $1 billion. Through the first iteration of the fund, US Logistics Fund I, the firm developed six logistics facilities totaling $421 million, delivering a 23% net IRR to its limited partners. The Cubes at DuPont in Seattle was among the six assets developed under the fund, which sold in December 2020 for $221 million; a record sales price for the market. Outside of deal-making, CRG leads in numerous other ways. It is focused on increasing female leadership in the industry through ClaycoNow, a program that connects female professionals and works to create more dynamic and diverse culture, and as a pioneer in the environmental space, CRG owns The Cubes, a brand of sustainable industrial facilities near labor pools and transportation centers.
DAUM COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE SERVICES With more than 115 years of experience brokering industrial deals in the Southern California market, DAUM Commercial Real Estate Services works with some of the biggest players in the industrial market, including Prologis, CenterPoint Properties, Duke Realty, Clarion Partners and Panattoni Development Co. However, the firm is also known for working closely with small businesses and supporting business goals through its advisory services. In 2020, DAUM closed $1.8 billion in leasing and sale industrial transactions, and in the first four months of 2021, the firm had already increased transaction volume by 25%. As a pillar of the industrial community, DAUM has worked on some of the most significant transactions in the Southwestern market, including the acquisition of a 60-acre parcel in Hesperia, CA for a one-million-square-foot build-to-suit industrial development; the sale of a 464,415-square-foot, six-property industrial portfolio in Los Angeles; and a sublease transaction for a 254,700-square-foot building in La Mirada, CA. With 10 offices in the region, the firm has a team of 140 brokers, some of whom have built 40-year careers at the company, and many belong to leading industry organizations and serve as guest lecturers at UCLA and USC.
DEDEAUX PROPERTIES Dedeaux Properties closed out 2020 with record transaction volume. Last year, the firm completed $500 million in transaction volume and developed more than two million square feet of logistics, distribution and cold storage assets in California. By the end of the year, Dedeaux Properties has assembled a six-million-square-foot portfolio; making the company one of the largest local non-institutional industrial owners in Los Angeles. The firm also completed its business plan on several investments, including the sale of a newly-developed warehouse building in Riverside for $44.4 million in September 2020 and the sale of a new 1.4-million-square-foot business park in Riverside on behalf of two institutional managed partnerships. The firm currently has a development pipeline of more than one million square feet in the Inland Empire and Los Angeles logistics markets that will deliver in 2021. With 80 years in business, the firm is known to be a pillar in the region’s industrial market. The Los Angeles Times named Dedeaux Properties one of the Visionaries in CRE in Southern California, and the firm’s leadership, which includes president Brett Dedeaux, regularly speak at conferences and other industry events. Outside of the office, the firm supports youth baseball and softball through the Dedeaux Foundation.
FOUNDRY COMMERCIAL Foundry Commercial does it all. The firm owns more than six million square feet of industrial product, leases and manages nearly 15 million square feet of industrial space, and has developed eight million square feet of industrial assets. In the past five years, the firm has closed 33 investment transactions totaling $1.5 billion and it has a current construction pipeline that spans South Florida, Orlando and Charlotte. In 2020, it also expanded into Tampa, Nashville and Atlanta. The firm’s total completed or current development activity values more than $2 billion. In the past 15 months, Foundry Commercial has increased its businesses and expanded into new markets, specifically South Florida and the Carolinas to help grow its development business. As a result, it is projected to double the size of its current investment portfolio over the next 24 months. Foundry Commercial has a team of more than 380 real estate professionals across 11 offices and seven states. The firm’s employees are rooted in industry organizations, including NAIOP, ULI, BOMA and CREW, and the company encourages the staff to volunteer in the community. The list of organizations supported by the firm is long, with names like Second Harvest Food Bank, Greater Enrichment Program, Feed America, Young Life, Habitat for Humanity and the Ronald McDonald House.
INNOVO PROPERTY GROUP Founder and CEO Andrew Chung launched investment firm Innovo Property Group in 2015 with the mission to acquire and develop commercial real estate in New York City. Since, the firm — which is backed by the Nan Fun Group, a Hong Kong-based global conglomerate — has been a trailblazer in the local logistics and warehouse market, and it has become one of the most active buyers of industrial real estate. In the past five years, Innovo Property Group has accumulated a more than 3.5-million-square-foot portfolio that totals $2 billion in capitalization. Among the firm’s most significant investments is a one-million-square-foot, 20-acre logistics center located in the Bronx. The property is one of the first multi-level warehouses on the East Coast, and it features 32-foot clear heights, two 130-foot truck courts with ramp access for loading on both floors and substantial onsite parking and fleet storage. It is scheduled for completion in 2022. This year, Innovo Property Group is taking on additional significant projects. It secured a $155 million construction loan to build a 900,000-square-foot industrial property. In addition to leading the firm, Chung serves on the Advisory Board for NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate and the Long Island City Partnership Board, and the firm is a member of Queens Chamber of Commerce as well as other local organizations.
MDH PARTNERS Atlanta-based MDH Partners is a real estate asset manager that uses its discretionary capital to target industrial investments. Under the leadership of founder and CEO Jeffrey Small, the firm has participated in more than $4 billion in transactions totaling 75 million square feet since its founding in 2005. MDH Partners targets value-add investment opportunities and it is focused on improving the sustainability and environmental impact of its properties through renovation and redevelopment. In April 2021, MDH Partners completed a capital raise for Fund II with $575 million in commitments and a total of $1.6 billion in buying power. The fund’s investors included large university endowments and foundations, and it closed in a record-setting two months. The fund has already made its first investment, an industrial facility near Scranton, PA, which served as the firm’s entrance into the Pennsylvania market. In its history, MDH Partners has delivered 25% IRR on investments, and it has never lost an investor’s capital. Despite surviving two major economic downturns, the firm also prides itself on having paid off every loan. MDH Partners serves as a pioneer in the ESG space. In addition to forming an ESG committee, the firm delivered the first industrial property to utilize CarbonCure technology. It now aims to use the technology on all new projects.
PARK MADISON PARTNERS While Park Madison Partners launched in 2006, the firm became a true industrial rainmaker in 2018. In the past three years, the firm has rapidly become a major player in the sector by raising $2 billion for an industrial open-end fund, $1 billion for industrial closed-end funds and more than $1.5 billion for industrial portfolio recapitalizations. In that time, Park Madison Partners has also built an impressive roster of clients, including Black Creek Group, NorthBridge Partners, BKM Capital Partners and Elion Partners, on behalf of which it has engaged more than 800 institutional limited partners. As such, Park Madison Partners lists its greatest accomplishment as the ability to access multiple capital sources for its clients. In 2020, it launched a new capital advisory practice to focus on recapitalizations and restructurings. Already, the group closed its first successful recapitalization: a $360 million industrial portfolio owned and operated by North-Bridge Partners. This year, the firm also launched a $500 million final close on behalf of NorthBridge Partners for its third final-mile industrial fund. The fund’s initial target was $300 million. The strong activity also supported new recruitment. In 2020, the staff increased by 36% from 11 employees to 15 employees, and the firm maintains active involvement in local industry organizations, including PREA Foundation, WX New York Women Executives in Real Estate and NYC Climate Alliance.
REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATES LLC (REDA) Jason Krotts and Bill Goltermann founded Real Estate Development Associates in 2011 with the goal to acquire and develop industrial properties in Southern California, and the firm has quickly become a top player in the market. In the last decade, the firm has completed 500 acres in land acquisitions, $492 million in equity placement and $2 billion in stabilized value. REDA has completed more than $5 billion in industrial projects and it has a current development pipeline totaling more than $2 billion. In 2021, REDA plans to break ground on more than four million square feet of industrial projects, valued at $750 million. The firm is in the process of entitling 300 additional acres for the development of seven million square feet. The firm achieved a successful 2020, during which it delivered or commenced construction on 3.5 million square feet of industrial product and entitled another 3.1 million square feet. REDA’s 2020 deliveries included phase one of the Ontario Ranch Logistics Center, a 2.6-million-square-foot logistics property in the Inland Empire. The company is laser-focused on developing industrial space in markets that deliver the best risk-adjusted returns to investors. As Krotts says, “We pay more attention to the downside scenarios and expect that they can more realistically happen.”
STAN JOHNSON CO. For the last 35 years, brokerage firm Stan Johnson Co. has been a leader in the triple-net lease segment of the market, and industrial properties are one of the firm’s strongest asset classes. Founded by president, CEO and namesake Stan Johnson, the firm has completed more than 850 industrial transactions and more than $10 billion in industrial sales volume, but much of that has come within just the last three years as the industrial market boomed. Already this year, Stan Johnson Co. has brokered the sales of an eight-property industrial portfolio for $28 million, a food processing facility in Sacramento for $20.8 million and a distribution facility in Ohio for $11 million, which sold above the list price. The firm brings both a local and a national perspective to deals, while specializing in single-asset and portfolio sales, sale-leaseback transactions and 1031 exchanges for all types of industrial properties, from warehouse and distribution to cold storage and manufacturing. Outside of the office, Stan Johnson Co. is engaged in the community through its philanthropic foundation SJCares, which works with local food banks throughout the country.
STATE STREET REALTY Founded in 2011, State Street Realty is a commercial brokerage firm in the Southeast with an impressive transaction history. Since its inception, the firm has completed more than 700 industrial and office transactions representing a total value of $725 million and 11 million square feet. The company is led by George Pino, who has personally generated $1.7 billion in sales and more than 28 million square feet in leasing transactions throughout his career. In 2020, the firm continued to be a market leader by closing 71 deals totaling 1.7 million and $91 million. Last year, NAIOP named State Street Realty an Industrial Broker Team of the Year finalist for the third time. Its success as a team was demonstrated during the pandemic when the firm quickly connected with clients during the first week of the national shutdown to become a resource. State Street Realty also implemented virtual tools to continue to transact and perform due diligence on existing projects in an effort to minimize delays due to the pandemic. The firm is a member of NAIOP, the Miami Realtors Association, Commercial Industrial Association of South Florida and SIOR, and it participates in local charities, including Orange Bowl Committee, His House, Neighbors 4 Neighbors and Big Brothers Big Sisters.
WARE MALCOMB Architecture and design firm Ware Malcomb has served as a trailblazer in the industrial market long before it became the most coveted commercial asset class. The firm has developed industrial properties since its inception in 1972. Today, it has designed more than one billion square feet of industrial properties, and it has built on its history to continuously conceive new designs and concepts for today’s unique user needs, including multi-story warehouses and cold storage facilities. Its multi-story prototype was able to overcome the challenge of supporting industrial development in highly sought-after or land-constrained locations by building vertically; creating the opportunity to significantly increase rentable square-footage without expanding the building footprint. Ware Malcomb currently has three projects under construction using this prototype and dozens more projects planned across the county. The company’s cold storage prototype allows developers to cost-effectively build speculative cold storage products, which has long been a challenge. One such project has already been built using the prototype in Texas. These design innovations have earned Ware Malcomb two cover stories in NAIOP’s Development Magazine, as well as NAIOP’s Distribution/Fulfillment Center of the Future design award.