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Brookfield Asset Management is continuing its industrial buys, this time acquiring a 14.6M SF portfolio of infill light industrial assets for $1.3B, according to Commercial Search.
The purchase consists of 128 buildings and spans 20 markets, particularly along the Sun Belt and Midwest, with 18 properties in Atlanta, 17 in Houston, 16 in Dallas and 12 in Tennessee.
The deal significantly increases Brookfield’s global logistics footprint in one blow: Its existing portfolio is 425 properties totaling about 150M SF.
It has another 90M SF worth of projects in development. In May, Brookfield delivered a 146K SF logistics center in Pflugerville, Texas, outside of Austin.
Brookfield got CMBS debt for the purchase and intends to improve the buildings’ sustainability, efficiency and safety, a press release states. The deal closed in June.
Brookfield had $106B worth of dry powder in its arsenal at the end of Q1. It has since embarked on a buying spree and remains bullish on the industrial sector despite cooling demand.
Last month, it was reported the Toronto-based company was approaching a deal to spend $825M on another industrial portfolio — its largest in five years at the time. The nearly 10M SF potential acquisition consisted of 83 properties across eight states, CoStar reported. It spanned 21 assets in Texas, 18 in Georgia, 16 in Ohio and 12 in Illinois. The portfolio has been over 92% occupied for the past seven years.
This deal does not appear to have closed at this time.
After a boom in industrial construction and demand over the past few years, the sector is leveling out. Demand has fallen at a faster rate than supply, which has led to a higher number of vacancies for the last few quarters. However, the 6.5% vacancy rate is still lower than the pre-pandemic rate of nearly 10%. Asking rents during the second quarter grew slightly, by 0.3%.
CORRECTION, JULY. 14, 1:07 P.M. ET: A previous version of the story referred to a proposed deal as already finalized. This story has been updated.)
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