REAL ESTATE TECHNOLOGY
Faropoint | July 06, 2022
Faropoint, a leading real estate investment firm focused on last-mile industrial properties in high population growth markets, today announced the sale of 109 institutional-quality, last-mile logistics buildings to a private buyer for $481 million. The portfolio consists of 6.8 million square feet of warehouse space largely concentrated in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Houston and Memphis.
The close of this portfolio sale in the current market climate further demonstrates Faropoint’s successful strategy as an aggregator of individual warehouses in growth markets across the U.S. The firm leverages a proprietary origination platform to collect data from its team of investment professionals across nine U.S. offices. This curation of data arms Faropoint with actionable insights and analytics to identify mostly off-market opportunities to acquire last-mile industrial buildings.
“This deal marks one of the largest portfolio sales of last-mile urban logistics centers in recent years and positions Faropoint to continue to provide significant value to its investors through its last-mile industrial funds,”
Faropoint Chief Relations Officer Raz Rahamim
The 109-building portfolio includes multi-tenant warehouse and light industrial properties, with each building averaging 62,000 square feet. The portfolio is 98 percent leased and occupied by approximately 200 local, regional and national tenants. During the firm’s 3-year hold period, Faropoint executed 120 leases across the portfolio, significantly increasing NOI and lease commitments.
“Our firm is extremely bullish about last-mile industrial and we are optimistic that fundamentals will remain strong in this segment of the market long-term due to constrained supply,” said Faropoint Chief Investment Officer Ohad Portat. “We will continue to closely monitor market conditions and adjust our strategy as needed in response to macroeconomic trends and future volatility.”
This disposition follows a record-breaking year of activity in 2021, during which time Faropoint acquired 148 buildings in 85 separate transactions.
“Transacting at such a high volume across nine offices and aggregating data from thousands of deals allows our team to act with much more accuracy and certainty when vetting and underwriting deals.” said Faropoint Chief Executive Officer Adir Levitas. “As the current macroeconomic climate evolves, we will continue to assess market conditions, and are well-capitalized to act when the right opportunities present themselves.”
Eastdil Secured advised Faropoint on the sale and financing of the portfolio, and Duval & Stachenfeld LLP served as legal advisor.
About Faropoint
Faropoint is a vertically integrated, data-driven real estate investment manager that leverages data and deep market relationships to achieve superior risk-adjusted returns. Faropoint targets inefficiencies in the marketplace that can be solved with technology and scaled to create meaningful positions using cutting-edge, proprietary, real estate underwriting and portfolio management methods. The company invests in markets with strong demographics and high construction barriers to entry, such as Atlanta, Dallas, Philadelphia, Northern New Jersey, Chicago, Tampa, Miami, and Memphis. Faropoint currently owns and manages more than 20 million square feet of industrial assets.
About Eastdil Secured
As the most relevant and trusted advisor in the commercial real estate capital markets, Eastdil Secured creates value for clients through creative, actionable ideas and flawless execution. With an unrivaled combination of capital markets expertise and in-depth understanding of real estate fundamentals, Eastdil Secured delivers best-in-class advice on mergers and acquisitions, sales, joint ventures, debt placement, structured credit and loan sales to investors around the world. Headquartered in New York, Eastdil Secured has a broad global footprint to support clients with offices across the United States in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, Orange County, San Francisco, Seattle, Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C., and internationally in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Dublin, Dubai, Hong Kong and Tokyo.
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REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
The Ascott Limited | July 05, 2022
CapitaLand Investment Limited's (CLI) wholly owned lodging business unit, The Ascott Limited (Ascott) announced it is acquiring Oakwood Worldwide (Oakwood), a premier global serviced apartment provider, from Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd. The acquisition increases Ascott's global portfolio by 81 properties and about 15,000 units. Oakwood's approximately 8,500 operational units are expected to immediately contribute to Ascott's recurring fee income streams upon completion of the transaction slated in 3Q 2022.
Ascott's acquisition of Oakwood will leapfrog Ascott's global presence to more than 150,000 units in about 900 properties across over 200 cities in 39 countries. It will add new markets which include Cheongju in South Korea; Zhangjiakou and Qingdao in China; Dhaka in Bangladesh as well as Washington D.C. in the United States of America (USA). Recently named the 'Best Serviced Residence Brand' in DestinAsian Readers' Choice Awards 2022, Oakwood's award-winning portfolio includes flagship properties Oakwood Premier Tokyo and Oakwood Premier Coex Center Seoul which were ranked top 10 properties in their respective countries in the DestinAsian awards. New properties such as Oakwood Premier Melbourne and Oakwood Hotel Oike Kyoto, will also add to the group's destination highlights.
"This acquisition of Oakwood is part of Ascott's roadmap to playing a bigger role in the lodging market. There are significant synergies between Ascott and Oakwood, given our complementary footprint and product offerings. We intend to build on the strong reputation and heritage of the Oakwood brand, especially in markets across Southeast Asia, North Asia and North America. Oakwood will continue to grow alongside Ascott's current portfolio of global brands as we continue to build growth momentum for our lodging business. We will be able to leverage Ascott's extensive expertise as a global lodging player to deliver greater value to our expanded network of loyal customers and property owners. Besides strategic alignment, this acquisition is also notable to Ascott commercially. Ascott's acquisition of Oakwood brings about an immediate boost to our units under management and franchise contracts. The Oakwood portfolio will accelerate the growth of our asset-light business, with added recurring fee income streams, expanded lodging offerings and increased customer base. The strategic moves we have made in the last few years, such as our investments in Quest, Synergy and TAUZIA have charted an unprecedented growth path for Ascott."
-Mr Kevin Goh, CLI's Chief Executive Officer for Lodging.
Ascott's strategic investments in the past years include its acquisition of Quest Apartment Hotels (Quest), one of the largest serviced apartment operators in Australasia, in 2017 to grow its business franchise arm. In the same year, Ascott invested in Synergy Global Housing (Synergy), a leading corporate housing provider in the USA. In 2018, Ascott acquired TAUZIA Hotel Management (TAUZIA), one of the top hotel operators in Indonesia, to enter the fast-growing mid-scale business hotel segment. With Oakwood coming onboard, Ascott is confident of achieving its target of 160,000 units globally well ahead of 2023.
About The Ascott Limited-
The Ascott Limited (Ascott) is a Singapore company that has grown to be one of the leading international lodging owner-operators. Ascott's portfolio spans over 200 cities across over 30 countries in Asia Pacific, Central Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the USA. Ascott has more than 81,000 operating units and over 54,000 units under development, making a total of more than 135,000 units in over 800 properties. The company's serviced apartment, coliving and hotel brands include Ascott The Residence, The Crest Collection, Somerset, Quest, Citadines, lyf, Préférence, Vertu, Harris, Citadines Connect, Fox, Yello, Fox Lite and POP!. Ascott's loyalty programme, Ascott Star Rewards, offers exclusive benefits to its members when they book directly with Ascott for their stays at its participating properties. Ascott, a wholly owned subsidiary of CapitaLand Investment Limited, pioneered Asia Pacific's first international-class serviced apartment with the opening of The Ascott Singapore in 1984. Today, the company boasts over 30 years of industry track record and award-winning brands that enjoy recognition worldwide.
About CapitaLand Investment Limited-
Headquartered and listed in Singapore, CapitaLand Investment Limited (CLI) is a leading global real estate investment manager (REIM) with a strong Asia foothold. As at 31 March 2022, CLI had about S$124 billion of real estate assets under management, and about S$86 billion of real estate funds under management (FUM) held via six listed real estate investment trusts and business trusts, and 29 private funds across the Asia-Pacific, Europe and USA. Its diversified real estate asset classes cover integrated developments, retail, office, lodging, business parks, industrial, logistics and data centres. CLI aims to scale its FUM and fee-related earnings through its full stack of investment management and operating capabilities. As the listed investment management business arm of the CapitaLand Group, CLI has access to the development capabilities of and pipeline investment opportunities from CapitaLand's development arm. Being a part of the well-established CapitaLand ecosystem differentiates CLI from other REIMs. As part of the CapitaLand Group, CLI places sustainability at the core of what it does. As a responsible real estate company, CLI contributes to the environmental and social well-being of the communities where it operates, as it delivers long-term economic value to its stakeholders.
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REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
Evernest | July 01, 2022
Evernest, a national, full-service real estate and property management firm, announced a merger with three divisions of Virginia-based Dodson Property Management. The merger will bring Dodson's divisions overseeing single-family property management, small multi-family buildings, and association management into the Evernest portfolio.
The merger includes Dodson's entire single-family portfolio of 2,450 units; 1,100 units under its Portfolio Management division of smaller multi-family buildings; and all Association Management operations, encompassing 170 associations and 15,000 units. The names of the divisions will change to Evernest.
The merger is Evernest's largest to date, and adds roughly 3,550 single-family homes and small multi-family units to Evernest's portfolio. The deal boosts Evernest's overall portfolio to more than 11,000 single-family homes and apartments under management nationwide and positions Evernest as one of the largest single-family and small multi-family real estate and property management firms in America. Additionally, the deal moves Evernest into the management of homeowners and condominium associations in Virginia and Florida.
This merger is really the culmination of two companies that have a similar culture, a similar tech platform, and similar teams that have built legacies in large-scale, single-family property management. A combined company will add value to Dodson and Evernest clients through shared resources, shared values, and shared systems."
Matthew Whitaker, Evernest Founder and CEO
The merger with Dodson places Evernest's property management and brokerage services into four new single-family markets: Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Williamsburg, Va., as well as Northern Virginia. Dodson has association management operations in Richmond, Northern Virginia, Williamsburg, and Sarasota, Fla. These markets add to the 18 national regions already served by Evernest's elite team of property managers and real estate brokers. Like Dodson, Evernest has focused in recent years on acquiring and merging operations to grow and better support owners and residents. The Dodson merger comes on the heels of 21 previous deals, either mergers or outright acquisitions, made by Evernest. Dodson is one of five deals Evernest has made in the second quarter of 2022 alone.
"We have a vision for our own company's growth, and felt scale was necessary to build the best leadership team in the industry and to provide our residents and clients with all of the resources possible to ensure that they have a quality experience," said Duke Dodson, President and CEO of Dodson Companies. "We're extremely close with Matthew and the team at Evernest and have worked together over the years to build our businesses from the ground up, share best practices, and help one another grow, so we felt very comfortable in taking this big step to come together as one."
Dodson's existing leadership, operations, and property/association management teams will remain in place in the markets the company serves. Both property owners and residents will experience a seamless transition, maintain the same team members they know, and see continually improving processes and systems. Publicly, Dodson signage will change to Evernest. Dodson's Commercial, Development and short-term rental divisions remain independent and are not included in the Evernest merger.
Adds Whitaker: "As we expand into Virginia, and join forces with the Dodson team, we're excited to help residents, owners, and investors achieve their real estate goals and show them what a great property and association management company can be."
About Evernest
Based in Birmingham, Ala., Evernest operates in 25 real estate markets across the country. It is one of the nation's largest single-family and small multi-family investment broker and property management provider. The firm manages more than 11,000 homes for over 4,100 owners, brokers more than 1,000 investment deals annually, and has made the Inc5000 list five of the last six years.
About the Dodson Companies
Dodson was founded in 2007 as a property management and real estate company dedicated to the needs of investor owners and tenants. Today, Dodson operates a commercial property management and brokerage division, Dodson Commercial; a real estate development group, Dodson Development; and a short-term rental management division.
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