By Jon Peterson
San Diego-based Westcore has received a new $500 million commitment from the Arizona State Retirement System to be used to funnel the growth of the company on a nationwide basis for investing in a mix of existing and development industrial assets.
This capital, along with equity commitments from two life insurance companies, will give Westcore $1.3 billion of equity capital to place into the marketplace. “Our expectation is that with leverage of around 50 percent, will have the ability to invest or acquire $2.6 billion of industrial assets in our markets around the country,” says Don Ankeny, president and CEO of Westcore.
Westcore now has 1.8 million square feet of new warehouse space in development across three national markets. One of the projects in this pipeline is the pre-construction phase of a 200,000 square foot project in San Bernardino, in the Inland Empire industrial market. There are additional two new developments under way in Arizona, as well.
Westcore is continuing to look for additional investment opportunities across a number of other markets on the West Coast and some new markets as it expands to a nationwide investment platform. Other West Coast areas where it has been active includes the San Francisco Bay Area market and the greater Seattle market. Additional geographies where the company will be looking for opportunities in in the near term include the state of Texas (specifically in the cities of Dallas, San Antonio and Houston), Chicago, Atlanta, Florida and New Jersey.
Westcore will be focused in investing in strong primary and secondary areas that are showing favorable supply-demand dynamics and growth potential. Its investments will include buying existing assets that are considered high-quality core plus or value-add assets or creating new product through development opportunities. The investment firm had a very active year in 2020. It acquired over $1 billion worth of industrial assets that totaled more than 11 million square feet of building space.
Founded in 2000, Westcore is a fully integrated industrial real estate investment company with institutional scale and capabilities, according to a statement by the firm. Since its founding, Westcore has acquired, managed and sold more than $10 billion in assets, comprised of more than 1,000 buildings and totaling over 100 million square feet. In addition to its U.S. headquarters in San Diego, Westcore has regional offices in Los Angeles, Oakland and Dallas
