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, GlobeSt have selected their annual group of industrial influencers based on the accomplishments and impacts made on the industry.
INDIVIDUALS
ADAM ABUSHAGUR
Adam Abushagur is one of the top players in the Southwest and Midwest industrial markets. He is the senior managing director of investments at Marcus & Millichap and the top industrial investment sales agent at the firm. Since 2017, he and his team have closed more than 200 transactions totaling $720 million in industrial properties—but it is not only his transaction activity that has made Abushagur a leader in the space. He single-handedly expanded the industrial market segment at Marcus & Millichap, drafting an industrial business plan that focuses on private buyers, rather than the institutional capital that most teams target. Abushagur has found tremendous opportunity working on owner-user and sale-leaseback deals, ultimately helping these business owners expand and strengthen the local economy. His team includes professionals that specialize in escrow, operations, marketing, research, strategy, analytics and data processing, and he has continued to expand into new and thriving industrial property types, such as cannabis and cold storage. Abushagur additionally launched a part-time internship program in order to expand his team and offer college students an immersive experience within the industry. Due to Abushagur’s mentorship, his team members have found success both professionally and personally.
MICHAEL BLUNT
Colliers recruited Michael Blunt three years ago after witnessing his impressive activity. Throughout his 25-year career, Blunt, who now serves as an EVP at the firm, has closed transactions totaling more than $10 billion, and in the years leading up to his recruitment, he had completed 100 million square feet of warehouse distribution transactions, in addition to deals in other asset classes. Since joining the firm, he has continued to achieve head-turning deals, like the $167 million sale of the 1,800-acre Keystone Industrial Port Complex in Fairless Hills, PA, on behalf of United States Steel Corp., or the $30 million sale/leaseback of 9900 Business Pkwy, a 156,000-square-foot last-mile industrial facility located in Lanham, MD. Blunt is also a leader outside of the deal table. He is known for being an optimistic team leader and a strategic planner as well as for his support of diversity, equity and inclusion in the commercial real estate industry. He recently spoke at a Black History event for the firm, saying, “The legacy of culture and achievement celebrated during Black History Month each year not only inspires me as a professional to persevere but also challenges me as a person to do my part to transcend, uplift and bequeath.”
RICHARD BURROW
As a managing principal and EVP at Langan, Richard Burrow is at the forefront of industrial design, shaping the way that goods are stored and transported. A site and civil engineer by trade, Burrow leads a team that works on industrial developments, but he is most often tasked with finding solutions to complex problems, including investigating subsurface conditions and environmental constraints, providing on-site infrastructure improvements and traffic planning. He is a highly sought-after expert in warehouse/distribution and e-commerce fulfillment developments, and as such, he works with some of the largest players in the industrial market, including Prologis, Trammell Crow, Rockefeller Group, CenterPoint, Duke Realty, Dermody and Clarion Partners. Throughout his 27-year career, he has led more than 100 million square feet of industrial development projects in key markets throughout the US. His notable career has earned him several accolades, most recently the ACEC Engineering Excellence National Recognition award for Cranbury Logistics Center, a 2.8-million-square-foot warehouse distribution center. Burrow is active in numerous industry organizations. He previously served as VP of associate affairs for NAIOP’s New Jersey chapter, he is a member of the NAIOP National E-commerce Forum, and he leads Langan’s business continuity efforts and health and safety policies. Under Burrow’s leadership, the firm’s 350 employees had zero in-office transmissions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ANTHONY CESARE CATALDO
As COO of Lowney Architecture, Anthony Cesare Cataldo is focused on improving the environmental efficiency of industrial developments. He has been raising the bar on sustainability in industrial construction for 15 years, since delivering one of California’s first LEED-certified industrial buildings and one of the country’s first energy-efficient warehouses, the 780,400-square-foot Sears Distribution Center. Other major projects include the 1.5-million-square-foot Patterson Fulfillment Center in Patterson, CA and the 1.8-million-square-foot Tracy Fulfillment Center in Tracy, CA. Today, he is working on bringing the same level of efficiency to multi-level infill projects that support e-commerce usage near population centers, recognizing the need for spaces that serve both small and large users. He believes that these infill projects serve as greener solutions due to less commuting and delivery times, therefore, ultimately reducing carbon emissions. Some of his innovative concepts include designing a fully-removable, double-engineered wall in a warehouse facility in Tracy, CA that can facilitate a future expansion, and working with the fire marshal on a project to create an alternate fire code to support a building’s design. As COO, Cataldo oversees the firm’s project performance and project budget to ensure designs are cohesive with the overall strategy and schedule. Cataldo is a member of the American Institute of Architects and has been a published thought leader in several industry publications.
BRAD D. COPELAND
In his 34 years as a developer, Brad Copeland has built more than 200 industrial projects valued at more than $1 billion. For the last 12 years, he has served as the co-founder and managing partner of CLX Ventures, where he oversees every aspect of the company’s active development pipeline, from site selection and design to underwriting, business strategy and ultimately the exit of each investment. Copeland is currently overseeing the firm’s transaction pipeline in the Texas market, which totals $700 million in development costs. Under Copeland’s leadership, CLX Ventures has achieved an impressive total investor return averaging in the mid-20% range. His developments are not only good for investors:. the first phase of his recent DFW Commerce Center was recognized as D CEO Magazine’s industrial deal of the year. Outside of the office, Copeland serves as the president of NAIOP and he is actively involved in Faith Based Investors, which supports young entrepreneurs in securing capital and operational advice.
SIM F. DOUGHTIE
Sim Doughtie is among the leading industrial brokers in the Atlanta market. In his 38-year career, he has been behind some of the largest developments, sale and lease transactions in the area. Since 2018, Doughtie has closed $43.9 million in deal volume with nearly 40 total transactions. His largest transaction to date is the Rockefeller Development Group’s more than 130-acre, 1.5-million-square-foot regional distribution center for General Mills, which was the largest LEED Gold-certified property in the US at the time of delivery. More recently, Doughtie has continued to work on major transactions. He closed a 573,000-square-foot lease in Union City, GA valued at $21.7 million, and a 300,000-square-foot industrial lease valued at $6.1 million for General Mills in East Atlanta. He also brokered the sale of a 180-acre land site for $8.5 million, working through a series of challenges, including several city utility lines that ran through the site. Doughtie serves as the qualifying broker, partner and president of King Industrial Realty Inc. He is a member of several major industry associations and he is on the Georgia State University Real Estate honorary board. Doughtie also serves as the firm’s representative to CORFAC International. A leader for the next generation of real estate executives, Doughtie launched an intern program at the firm to cultivate minority talent and enhance diversity. He says, “It is not enough to just open the doors to minority participation and expect them to just walk in the door. We must be intentional in our efforts and seek out qualified minority candidates to introduce to our business.”
LYNN A. DRAKE
Lynn Drake has been a trailblazer from the beginning. Starting her career 37 years ago, Drake was one of the first women to work in the industrial real estate sector. Today, she is the president of Compass Commercial LLC, where she works on both office and industrial transactions. Throughout her career, she has closed a total of 1,400 transactions. As of 2021, 70% of her business is dedicated to industrial real estate. Drake holds in-depth local knowledge, deep sector relationships and the skillset to locate and secure spaces for her clients. In less than six months, Drake secured two industrial lease renewal transactions and four industrial sale transactions, including a 13-acre, three-building warehouse on a paved site. As president and founder of Compass Commercial, Drake oversees all day-to-day operations, and in 2020, this largely meant rebuilding the team. After having all of her clients cancel in-progress deals at the start of the pandemic, Drake spent months cold-calling and pivoting her focus from office to industrial. She was quickly retained to complete numerous industrial transactions and by early 2021, all of her clients returned; taking her from 30% capacity to 130% capacity in just 60 days. As the leader of her firm, Drake continues to ensure that more than 40% of the firm’s clients are women-owned businesses. Throughout the past year, due to her in-depth expertise and industry achievements, Drake repeatedly spoke at large industry events regarding how to work with landlords during COVID-19 and other industry matters. She also exponentially grew her social media following in 2020 by sharing industry and professional insights. In 2017, Drake authored the book “Do You Speak Lease?” as an educational guide to lease transactions for non-real estate professionals.
KENNETH S. FIELDS
Kenneth Fields has a 30-year track record in representing industrial players in some of the largest deals in California as outside general counsel. In 2020, Fields represented clients in four of the 10 largest industrial deals in the state. In the last three years, he has represented Rexford Industrial in the acquisition of a four-building 632,497-square-foot industrial portfolio for $129.4 million and in the purchase of Gateway Pointe Industrial Campus, a nearly one-million-square-foot complex, for $296.6 million. Fields also worked on behalf of Rexford Industrial to negotiate a sale-leaseback on a 70,000-square-foot property with a 10-year lease term. Fields’ clients additionally include ARKA Properties Group and Black Equities Group. As a partner at Greenberg Glusker LLP, Fields works on all aspects of a deal to meet his client’s needs, whether that means handling purchase and sale agreements, prepping a deal to come to market or working on 1031 exchange transactions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fields’ business thrived as he stepped up to help guide clients through the uncertainty by advising on eviction moratoriums, lease modifications and contract provisions and modifications.
CJ FOLLINI
With 28 years of experience in the industrial sector, CJ Follini has a reputation as an expert within the cold storage asset class — a market segment that is currently experiencing a surge in activity. As the principal and chief investment officer at Noyack Capital Partners, Follini oversees the firm’s strategy for opportunistic and alternative real estate private equity and the company’s more than $1 billion of assets under management. He has a history of closing big deals. In 2019, Follini brokered the largest industrial land deal in New York City. The $63 million land site will eventually become the largest multi-story cold storage facility in the country once complete. The rollout of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines has only shined a spotlight on the cold storage segments and helped to fuel the firm’s business. As a result of Follini’s leadership, Noyack Capital Partners has become the largest family office in the cold storage logistics sector. Outside of the office, Follini is a board member of Golden Seeds, one of the nation’s largest investment groups for female-founded companies, and he serves on the boards of various arts institutions and philanthropies in New York and Los Angeles including the HERE Arts Center and Chashama.
CHAD GRIFFITHS
As associate broker and partner at NAI Commercial Real Estate Inc., Chad Griffiths handles transactions around the globe. In his 17-year career, he has completed hundreds of commercial transactions, earning him a spot among the firm’s top 15 producers in Canada since 2013 and he has previously been named a CoStar Power Broker. As a discerning professional, Griffiths handles leasing and sale transactions for a wide range of industrial owners and users, both small players and institutions. In the past three years alone, he has completed 100 industrial transactions, and this year, he has already completed sales transactions totaling more than $25 million. In addition to his impressive deal volume, Griffiths is a dedicated mentor and industry educator. He regularly pens blog posts and films YouTube tutorials, and he speaks at industry conferences. In addition, Griffiths is a member of several industry organizations, including the Real Estate Council of Alberta, NAIOP Edmonton, the South Edmonton Business Association and the City of Edmonton Strathcona Junction advisory committee. As associate broker, he oversees all operations for his local office and he implemented new health and safety policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to help minimize the impact and protect staff.
ALFREDO GUTIERREZ
In 2011, Alfredo Gutierrez founded SparrowHawk Real Estate, a merchant investor and manager of industrial real estate products. Since it’s founding, under Gutierrez’s leadership the firm has built a portfolio of 34 properties totaling 5.8 million square feet, and it manages leases with more than 100 tenants, ranging in size from 18,000 square feet to 600,000 square feet. Historically, the portfolio has maintained an occupancy above 95%. In the last three years, Gutierrez and his team have closed 37 leases and lease renewals totaling more than 1.5 million square feet. This year, the firm has built on that momentum, expanding its portfolio with the purchase of a 226,000-square-foot building in Kansas City, a new market for the company. Gutierrez is a veteran industrial player with a 35-year career and is a certified tax consultant with a resume that includes director of taxation and controller at Camden Property Trust and a tenure as a tax consultant with Arthur Andersen. As an investor, Gutierrez’s experience includes serving as a partner at Pinchal, an industrial real estate investment firm. He was also involved in bridging the local chapter of SIOR and the SIOR Foundation with the Texas A&M Mays Business School Master of Real Estate program to establish an endowed scholarship.
SCOTT W. HADLEY
Scott Hadley has built a reputation as a pioneer in the Raleigh-Durham market. As VP at Lee & Associates Raleigh-Durham, he oversees some of the largest industrial transactions in the market, including a land transaction to Bharat Forge as part of a $171 million investment the firm is making in Lee County, NC, which is anticipated to create 460 jobs over the next five years. Hadley currently handles the sales for four industrial parks for the Kerr Tar Regional Economic Development Group and handles sales for Harnett County’s two industrial parks. In the past three years, Hadley has completed 45 deals totaling $25 million. He has 31 years of experience transacting in the market and he has won numerous awards, including the TCREW Professional Commercial Real Estate Services award. He serves on the TCAR board and is on the board of directors for the Sanford Area Growth Alliance. He also participates in the Franklin County Economic Development and Capital Area Workforce Development Board, along with several local charities.
GREGG HEALY
Last year, Gregg Healy was named EVP and the head of the industrial services group at Savills, in which he was tasked with overseeing the expansion and growth of the company’s industrial platform. With 18 years of experience, Healy is an expert in third-party logistics and supply chain markets with a deep knowledge of manufacturing, warehousing and distribution solutions and trends, and experience in driving industrial platform growth. In 2016, Healy oversaw the supply chain solutions practice at Colliers. Under his leadership, the platform grew into a multi-million-dollar business with 600 professionals. In his new role at Savills, he oversees advisory services and transactions with a targeted focus on supply chain, logistics, warehouse, distribution and manufacturing real estate in the US and Canada. Most recently, this has included completing the US coordination of site evaluations for Lion Electric, a newly completed project that will bring more than 750 jobs to Illinois. Healy is a well-known industry leader, who has spoken at several industry conferences, including NAIOP, IAMC and SIOR. He is a member of the board at Grand Canyon University, and he does volunteer work with Food on Foot, a non-profit that provides essentials for homeless residents in Southern California.
MICHAEL KENDALL
In his 29-year career, Michael Kendall has held various positions at the top industrial firms in the US, including CBRE’s national partners industrial platform and Turner Development. For the last three years, Kendall has served as the executive managing director of the Western region industrial capital markets at Colliers, overseeing a team of eight. In the role, Kendall represents institutional owners, high-net-worth individuals, local entrepreneurs and private equity funds. During his tenure at Colliers, he and his team have completed more than $2.9 billion in sales, and they expect to close more than $1 billion in 2021. Along with his team, Kendall has closed several deals totaling more than $100 million, including representing US Steel in the sale of the Keystone Industrial Port Complex in Fairless Hills, PA, for $167 million, and the $165 million sale of a four-property sale-leaseback portfolio. As a result of this substantial deal activity, Kendall is a member of Colliers’ Everest Club, an honor given to the top 10% of brokers in the US. He is the industrial member of Colliers US capital markets board of advisors, where he works with the group’s president to increase market share. Kendall is a member of NAIOP and the former president of the Inland Empire Chapter and a member of CBPA.
DAVID KRUMWIEDE
Two decades ago, David Krumwiede established the Phoenix headquarters office for the Desert West region for industrial developer Lincoln Property Co., where he currently oversees industrial construction as senior EVP. Today, the Desert West territory, which includes Phoenix and Las Vegas, is one of the top industrial markets in the nation. Under Krumwiede’s leadership, the office has developed nearly 10 million square feet and has more than 13.5 million square feet of space under management. In 2020, Krumwiede was responsible for growing the company’s footprint, focusing on new development projects in Nevada and Utah with the acquisition of 12 buildings totaling more than one million square feet of class A industrial space. While Krumwiede has built an expansive portfolio, he has also focused on creating sophisticated properties — not simply big-box buildings. Instead, he oversees the construction of purpose-built modern spaces that target a wide range of highly-skilled users, from robotics engineers to IT experts. Examples of these state-of-the-art spaces include Lincoln Property Co.’s Park303 and Buckeye85, which feature LED fixtures, clerestory windows, sky views and shifting natural light, all of which are known to increase productivity. Krumwiede oversees a team of 50 real estate professionals while managing high-profile projects. For the last three consecutive years, he has earned the NAIOP Arizona Owner/Developer of the Year award.
TED LILES
For nearly 15 years, Ted Liles has been a dedicated representative for industrial tenants and occupiers. As a principal at Cresa, Liles has overseen tremendous growth in the Phoenix industrial market. Some of his most recent, notable transactions include negotiating a 211,208-square-foot lease acquisition for KBR; the sale of a 192,158-square-foot facility for ITC Manufacturing; a 170,671-square-foot lease on behalf of Xpress Global Systems; and a 125,000-square-foot lease on behalf of Exertis. Due to his impressive transaction record, Liles was appointed to the co-chair of Cresa’s industrial leadership council, and in January 2021, Commercial Executive Magazine named him broker of the month. Liles is a dedicated mentor and coach, and he often shares best practices with local office and national industrial teams to support growth both for the firm and the industry. Liles was recently featured on the Optimized AF podcast to discuss how to lead a team to perform and find success. During the pandemic, Liles was able to leverage his strong work ethic to continue providing high-level services to clients.
TOM MCGONAGLE
Tom McGonagle has been a respected leader in the industrial market for more than three decades. Throughout his career, he has held leadership positions at MacDermid Inc., Vistar Corp., Merchant Banking Group at Babcock & Brown LP and Lufkin & Jenrette/Credit Suisse. Currently, McGonagle is the senior managing director and senior portfolio manager at Black Creek Group, where he has built out the firm’s industrial platform for more than a decade. The role has included launching regional offices across the US and conceiving and implementing an evaluation procedure for acquisitions, which the firm uses today. McGonagle is known for working on several high profile and confidential transactions and projects. He also worked on the sale of the real estate portfolio of Industrial Property Trust, Black Creek’s sponsored investment fund, to affiliates of Prologis at the beginning of 2020. The transaction included 236 properties totaling 37.5 million square feet and was valued at $4 billion. The sale is an example of McGonagle’s financial savvy and deep market knowledge. He has been a member of ULI for more than a decade, and he serves as a mentor on Black Creek’s analyst and associate internship development program. Outside of the real estate market, McGonagle stays busy by working on the foundation board for Children’s Hospital Colorado.
THOMAS F. MONAHAN
Thomas Monahan made industrial sector history in 2018 when he became the first broker in the New Jersey market to become one of CBRE’s top producers and earn the title of vice chairman. Monahan has 30 years of experience in guiding industrial deals across the finish line, and he is known for working on every aspect of the deal, including marketing, site selection, leasing and sales in the New Jersey metro area. In 2020, Monahan’s transaction activity earned him a spot among the top 1% of producers at the firm, and he was among the top 25 producers in the Americas across all asset classes, once again a first for a broker in the New Jersey market. In the last three years, Monahan has closed several noteworthy transactions, including a 1.1-million-square-foot on behalf of Greek Development in Logan, NJ, a 913,466-square-foot lease on behalf of Prologis in Burlington, NJ, and he brokered the sale of a portfolio for $248.5 million. Monahan is regularly recognized by SIOR as one of the region’s top brokers. He is an active member of CBRE Cares and is involved in several outside charities, including SIOR Scholarship Fund, the American Kidney Fund and Project All Stars.
TRACI BUCKINGHAM PAYETTE
Traci Buckingham Payette has spent the duration of her 23-year career at CBRE. As an EVP, Payette is an expert in the Chicago industrial market, where she holds deep relationships with industrial owners and developers. “Throughout her career, Traci has been able to create and maintain strong client relationships because she invests a significant amount of time to learn about who they are and what they represent,” a colleague states. “(She does) an excellent job of balancing her business between local projects and occupier clients, as well as globally in the account management arena. She has proven that superior client care and awareness are the difference between her and her peers.” Since 2018, Payette has been involved in more than 100 transactions, totaling 19.9 million square feet and valuing more than $932 million. Her transactions are among the most significant in the market and include representing Target in two of the largest industrial leases in the Chicago area; a long-term lease for a 1.1-million-square-foot distribution and warehouse facility and a lease for a 1.2-million-square-foot distribution center. Payette additionally recently assisted in leasing a one-million-square-foot facility near Chicago to General Motors and she was hired by Caterpillar to sell its more than 75-acre site near Tokyo, which ultimately set the record for the largest industrial land sale transaction ever recorded in the submarket. She is an active member of NAIOP and AIRE, and she is a member of the CBRE women’s network.
CLAY PRITCHETT
As a partner at NAI Partners, with more than two decades of experience, Clay Pritchett is one of the most reputable industrial players in the Southwest market. Based in Houston, TX, Pritchett is the top closer in the city, and last year, he was the firm’s highest producing broker across all asset classes. Since joining NAI Partners in 2012, Pritchett has completed more than $600 million in transaction value. Through the pandemic, he has continued to close significant deals. He represented Redwood Property Investors III LLC in the purchase of a 301,127-square-foot industrial campus on nearly 32 acres of land in northwest Houston; he arranged the sale of a 153,000-square-foot class-A facility that features office, freezer-cooler warehouse and food processing space; and he brokered the sale of a 105,664-square-foot industrial campus on 32 acres. Pritchett specializes in seller and buyer representation, landlord representation, tenant representation and development advisory services. Following the pandemic, he believes in focusing on client services above all else.
STEPHANIE RODRIGUEZ
As regional SVP at Duke Realty, Stephanie Rodriguez is one of few female leaders in the industrial space — but she dominates the field. Rodriguez was recently promoted from the role of VP of leasing and development, where she oversaw leasing for an 8.5-million-square-foot portfolio in the Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. In her current role, Rodriguez leads leasing, property management, development opportunities and marketing of the firm’s industrial portfolios in Central and South Florida. In 2019, Rodriguez was named Dealmaker of the Year at Duke Realty, and she has earned numerous accolades from several other local and national publications. Her resiliency and ability to take on and overcome challenging situations is a skill that shined during the pandemic. Despite the countless regulations last year, Rodriguez successfully maintained close contact with her clients to manage expiring leases and maintain portfolio occupancy. Rodriguez is a member of NAIOP and BOMA, and she continually pursues speaking engagements as an industry leader. She is involved in several local charities, including Kids in Distress, Hope South FL and SOS Children’s Village.
JACKSON SMITH
Investment and development firm Newcastle Partners has flourished under Jackson Smith’s leadership. He has been a partner at the firm for the last 15 years and he works in the trenches every day to jump-start new developments. As partner, Smith sources land acquisition opportunities, entitles new projects and oversees the public hearing process. In the past two years, Smith has overseen 15 entitlement/development projects totaling more than two million square feet of industrial space in Southern California, and he has closed escrow on $64 million of commercial real estate. Last year, under Smith’s leadership, the firm entitled 50 acres of land in the Inland Empire for development, and the firm is currently developing three industrial properties totaling 824,500 square feet in the area. Due to Smith’s efforts, the firm recently delivered Centerpointe Commerce Center, a 203,944-square-foot speculative distribution center in Moreno Valley, and the 275,986-square-foot, two-story South Millken Distribution Center. While Smith’s latest accomplishments have been at Newcastle Partners, his storied 25-year career has included leadership positions at other major development firms. Prior to his tenure at Newcastle Partners, he was the senior development manager for Panattoni Development Co., where he was responsible for the development of 4.5 million square feet of commercial real estate valued at $200 million.
ANTOANETA TODOROVA
Antoaneta Todorova joined Prologis as SVP and fund manager of the Prologis European Logistics Fund in 2020 during the middle of a global pandemic. In the role, she manages a portfolio valued at more than €14 billion in assets under management across 40 European markets with more than 100 investors, and she is tasked with driving growth for the portfolio. Despite the pandemic, Todorova excelled in her first year on the job. Last year, she and her team raised €1.2 billion of equity for PELF, a record for the fund; she achieved 5 out of 5 GRESB Green Stars, which has ensured the fund has a top-five position for seven consecutive years; she acquired three properties developed to WELL standards; and she completed the issuance a €500 million Green Eurobond at a 0.75% all-in annual coupon and 12-year maturity. Her work caught the attention of the PERE 2020 Award Program, which honored the firm as the Logistics Investor of the Year. While her accomplishments as a fund manager are commendable, Todorova has also built a reputation as a dedicated team leader. She works closely with other management at Prologis to support and cultivate inclusion and diversity programs, and she championed a program to expand parental leave to offer fathers and partners 12 paid weeks. Outside of the office, Todorova is a member of Women Talk Real Estate.
ROB VODINELIC
Rob Vodinelic is at the helm of Newmark’s valuation and advisory industrial and logistics specialty practice. As senior managing director and market leader for Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, Vodinelic not only provides superior valuation and consulting services on industrial deals, he is also responsible for business development, third-party appraisal review services, and leading a team of appraisal experts. From 2018 to 2020, Vodinelic was involved in evaluating 350 million square feet of industrial product valued at more than $27 million. Under Vodinelic’s leadership, the valuation team has worked on some of the largest transactions in the region on behalf of major clients, including domestic and international lenders, pension funds, global investment and private equity firms and REITs. Vodinelic holds an MAI designation from the Appraisal Institute and the MRICS designation from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. For the last three years, he has served on the board of directors for the Appraisal Institute’s Ohio chapter, and he is the chairperson of the scholarship committee. As chairperson, he assisted in establishing an annual scholarship to support diversity in the valuation industry. Through the program, he has awarded five scholarships to professionals that have gone into leadership roles within the industry.
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.
Source: GlobeSt