Manulife, Foundry Launch Industrial Outdoor Storage JV
Manulife Investment Management has launched a joint venture with Foundry Commercial to purchase, develop and lease industrial outdoor storage in across infill industrial markets in the Southeast.
The joint venture plans to operate a portfolio consisting of 10 sites, located in Nashville, Atlanta, Jacksonville and Dallas Fort-Worth. Manulife has already acquired three of the sites that have completed construction, while the remaining will be developed together with Foundry.
Manulife has $19.2 billion worth of assets under management and more than 84.6 million square feet of CRE on a global scale, while Foundry currently has $2.7 billion in assets under management.
The decision to invest in this niche got a boost from the reduction in capital costs compared to industrial properties in general, which also brings opportunities unavailable to the general marketplace, said Foundry Commercial Principal Rick Coe in a prepared statement.
A sought-after industrial niche
Despite being a small, rather untapped industrial niche, IOS is attracting a significant number of investors looking to branch out and diversify.
In early January, Alterra IOS partnered with ConGlobal Industries to acquire four IOS properties totaling nearly 90 acres. The assets are located in areas with dense IOS clusters, near port and rail infrastructure.
More recently, Triten Real Estate and TPG Angelo Gordon announced plans to acquire more than $1 billion in additional industrial outdoor storage assets over the next five years. The joint venture initially launched their investment platform in 2020, and have since purchased more than $500 million of IOS assets across 16 markets.
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