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Thor Equities, once a major retail asset investor, is turning its attention to e-commerce.
The company announced the launch of ThorLogis Friday, a division that will specialize in logistics, according to a statement from the firm. The Joe Sitt-led company will spend $900M on buying and developing logistics facilities with the new venture.
Sitt told The Wall Street Journal that he has been weighing a pivot from physical retail stores for some years, and that he has “basically shut down” the retail acquisitions.
He is still meeting with familiar real estate executives, he said, “except I’m now serving their needs for a logistics space instead of serving their needs for a [store] space.”
In New York, the company will turn a site in Red Hook, previously set to be offices, into a logistics facility. That will now be a 700K SF warehouse, slated for completion in 2021.
It has also picked up a 430K SF facility in Amsterdam that will be occupied by the Dutch flower company Bakker it said.
Though once a prolific investor of retail, in recent years the firm has sold off Burlington Arcade in London and 693 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan for $525M. It also defaulted on a $37M loan on a property at 115 Mercer St. this year.
The ThorLogis platform comes just a few weeks after Thor announced it was forging into life sciences, kicking off that new division with the $152M purchase of The Center of Excellence, a 784K SF campus in Bridgewater, New Jersey.
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