By Jon Peterson
San Diego-based Westcore Properties has received a new $337.5 million investment from New York City-based Almanac Realty Investors as growth capital for future investments in industrial properties. Two of the main targeted markets for this capital will be Northern California and Seattle.
“We think that these two markets along with Southern California are areas where it’s very difficult to find assets to acquire or sites to build as these regions have high barriers to entry. The good news is that once you are able to find some opportunities it makes the properties that you own very valuable and will have significant interest from investors and/or users to sell to them in the future,” says Don Ankeny, president and chief executive officer of Westcore.
“Westcore is a strong vertically-integrated company of seasoned real estate professionals with a 30-year track record of providing exceptional returns to its investors. Over the past five years we have experienced firsthand the high caliber and character of this management team, and we are pleased to support the next phase of Westcore’s expansion,” said Andrew Silberstein, a partner with Almanac in a prepared statement.
Westcore will be looking to only invest in industrial properties. The real estate investor will be considering opportunities in markets outside of its three targeted areas. These other markets would include Denver, Reno, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and Phoenix.
Westcore is planning to invest in a mixture of buying existing properties that have a strong valued-added investment opportunity and buying land for new development projects. The real estate firm is planning to place leverage on the new equity investment from Almanac in the range of 55 percent to 65 percent. A typical holding period on the assets that it buys or buildings would be five years.
Westcore’s most recently announced transaction in Northern California was the $6 million acquisition of a 172,500 square foot industrial property in Stockton located at 4545 Qantas Lane. The property is 100 percent leased to PacTiv for three years. The seller was Sacramento-based Friedman Family. They were represented in the sale by Robert Taylor and Tim Mustin of JLL.
The new investment from Almanac was made on behalf of the company’s latest real estate commingled fund, Almanac Realty Securities VII. The manager had a final closing on this fund in June 2015. The amount of capital going directly into the commingled fund was $1.26 billion. There was an additional $160 million placed into the fund by limited partners for co-investment opportunities.
The relationship with Westcore and Almanac first began in 2011 when the Almanac made a $197.7 million equity investment into Westcore. This investment was done for Almanac Realty Securities V. Almanac as a company provides growth capital to public and private real estate companies around the country.
