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Brookfield, Blackstone pour money into industrial outdoor storage lots
CNBC reported Brookfield and Blackstone are backing industrial outdoor storage lots as U.S. rents roughly doubled since 2020, while brokers said smaller sites still attract local buyers.
- New headline Was: “Rising rents draw Wall Street money to industrial outdoor storage lot investments across the U.S.”
- Our desk filed its story
Brookfield and Blackstone are among large alternative-asset managers putting money into U.S. industrial outdoor storage lots — fenced yards for idle trucks, construction gear and other equipment — as rents in major markets have roughly doubled since 2020, CNBC reported on Saturday1.
Devin Barnwell, a managing partner who co-leads Brookfield’s logistics business, said the firm has “strong conviction in industrial outdoor storage, which plays a critical role in our supply chain,” according to CNBC1.
Brookfield spent $1.2 billion earlier this year to take Peakstone Realty Trust private, a deal completed in May that gave it more than 70 industrial properties, most of them outdoor storage yards, CNBC said1.
Blackstone is mainly a lender in the sector so far: its real estate debt arm has made six loans totaling more than $1.1 billion, including a $244 million loan in June to Alterra IOS to buy 37 properties, CNBC reported1.
Newmark Research and Alterra data cited by CNBC showed average rent per usable acre across eight major markets rose 103.5% from 2020 through the third quarter of this year, to nearly $11,000 a month, versus a 66% increase for traditional indoor industrial space1.
Alterra tied rent growth more closely to infrastructure and energy activity than to data-center development specifically, CNBC said; Baltimore (204%), Houston (159%) and Norfolk (148%) led, while South Florida and Savannah outdoor-storage rents trailed traditional industrial1.
Adam Petrillo of Newmark, who co-leads its industrial outdoor storage practice, told CNBC smaller owners still control well-placed sites in secondary markets and that lots of three to five acres can still work for individual buyers1.
Sam Cheema of Dallas-based CanTex Capital said properly zoned infill lots are scarcer than warehouses because more sites convert to other uses, which keeps tenants sticky, CNBC reported; he said institutions want exposure but ownership remains fragmented1.
Alex Sutterer of NAI Hiffman said outdoor-storage properties typically need less capital spending than warehouses or apartments and often trade at a yield about one percentage point higher than traditional industrial, a gap he expects to narrow as more institutional money arrives1.
Kellie McIvor of Redwood Living told CNBC smaller buyers can face costlier debt and higher equity requirements than large institutions; CNBC also cited Wall Street forecasts of possible Federal Reserve rate increases, which are not yet decisions1.
