Realterm Buys Brookfield Industrial Portfolio for $277M

Two significant players are trading a portfolio in the emerging asset class of industrial outdoor storage.

Realterm purchased a 13-property portfolio from Brookfield Asset Management, an arm of Brookfield Properties, for $277 million, the Commercial Observer reported. The portfolio spans 632,000 square feet, working out to a price of $438 per square foot.

The properties are cumulatively leased to 10 tenants. The properties are single-tenant truck terminals and low-coverage industrial assets, spread across 131 acres in seven markets, including Dallas-Fort Worth, Orlando, Northern New Jersey, Chicago and the Inland Empire.

Eastdil Secured’s Brian Budnick and Nick Murphy arranged the financing of the sale, which closed before the end of last year.

“The acquisition furthers our investment strategy of owning and operating transportation-advantaged assets in key freight markets throughout the United States,” Realterm managing director Stephen Panos said in a statement.

Institutional investors have shown increasing interest in the industrial outdoor storage space in the last year or so, already buoyed by industrial real estate’s strength post-pandemic.

Realterm’s recapitalization of its industrial outdoor storage portfolio in 2023 helped establish the industrial sector segment, Scott Perkins, the broker of another deal in the space told The Real Deal. Perkins helped arrange Chicago-based Ambient Capital Partners’ recent purchase of six properties in Harrison and Kearny for $156.3 million.

Maryland-based Realterm is an active player in industrial investments. In 2023, the firm landed a $95 million building loan and $23 million project loan from JPMorgan for a warehouse project near John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens.

Last year, Brookfield bought a trio of industrial assets in the Chicago area for $98 million. They were all previously owned by German asset management firm DWS.

— Holden Walter-Warner