Carlyle doesn't deal with small transactions. Last year its net lease business did about $100 million in deals, which Managing Director Barclay Jones called modest. "It was one acquisition and one sale," he tells GlobeSt.com.

Carlyle's net lease activities, of course, were disrupted by the market dislocation of the last year like everyone else. Much of its efforts were spent tending its own portfolio.  When the Global Credit platform acquired iStar's net lease business in 2022 for $3 billion, it gained a diversified portfolio of triple-net leases spanning industrial, office and entertainment properties across 18.3 million square feet in the US. Jones led iStar's net lease strategy for more than 20 years before joining Carlyle with the acquisition.

This year might be different, says Jones, who is one of the participants in GlobeSt.com's Net Lease conference being held in roughly two weeks. It'll still participate in bids, but conditions are ripening for actual transactions to take place. "We are now beginning to see some interesting developments. Last year it was tough to see how you got someone to pay enough rent that would result in a risk-adjusted positive spread" for an investor.