Clarion Partners launched a new power-focused business line, putting a former Prologis executive at the helm of its push into energy strategy.

Magesh Srinivasan joined Clarion in the newly created role of senior vice president for power and energy strategy, the real estate investment manager announced Thursday. Srinivasan spent the last four years at Prologis, the world’s largest industrial firm, as its global head of energy markets.

“As power availability is becoming an increasingly important consideration across the industrial real estate landscape, Magesh’s appointment reflects Clarion’s focus on anticipating these structural changes and incorporating power considerations into investment, development and portfolio strategy,” Dayton Conklin, head of Clarion's industrial platform, said in a statement. 

Srinivasan will work out of Clarion’s Dallas office to “establish power and energy management as a core strategic capability” for Clarion, the company said. He will be responsible for developing a portfolio-wide view of power availability, infrastructure constraints and opportunities. He will work across Clarion’s other teams, including leasing, development and investment, to incorporate power considerations into their strategies. 

The 18-year veteran of electricity markets most recently led energy and infrastructure strategy for Prologis’ logistics real estate portfolio in the U.S., Europe and Mexico. He was involved in structured power transactions, energy risk management, utility-scale and distributed energy solutions, and energy infrastructure investments.

Before joining Prologis, Srinivasan spent 14 years at electric utility provider Southern California Edison.

Clarion published a white paper in June arguing that “the convergence of long-term structural drivers and emerging cyclical tailwinds suggests the industrial sector may be approaching an inflection point, with conditions increasingly supportive of new development.”

Demand is improving, big-box leasing is accelerating, and structural tailwinds like e-commerce growth and warehouse obsolescence create opportunity in the industrial space, the paper says. Experienced developers will be better positioned to navigate the environment where supply constraints, including from power procurement and political considerations, are increasingly complicating deals. 

U.S. industrial vacancy was flat in the third quarter at 7.1%, and construction deliveries hit an eight-year low as the sector continues to work through a wave of pandemic-era development, according to Cushman & Wakefield. 

Rent growth has slowed but remains positive, and the pace of absorption was up 33% year-over-year, with demand concentrated in modern facilities.