Morgan Stanley has provided a $100 million credit facility to a J.P. Morgan Asset Management partnership that’s seeking to buy niche industrial properties.
The lender closed in the past couple of weeks on the line for a joint venture between J.P. Morgan and Alterra Property, a Philadelphia investment manager. The duo will use the debt to help purchase some $300 million of outdoor-storage properties. The facility can be increased in the future, although the parameters for that couldn’t be learned.
The investment focus is on properties such as truck parking lots, equipment-rental sites and container-storage space near ports. The partnership looks to purchase properties of up to 50 acres apiece nationwide, with a focus on those serving the infrastructure, transportation, petrochemical and construction industries. It has already amassed some $50 million of properties.
Much of the asset class is held by smaller owners and operators, so the Alterra partnership sees an opportunity to scoop up properties from firms in need of cash due to the coronavirus pandemic. Overall, some $14 billion of such properties traded in 2018, according to an Alterra press release announcing the investment strategy in January. “We look forward to working with Alterra to institutionalize a new category of industrial real estate,” J.P. Morgan managing director Peter Sibilia said in the announcement.
Alterra was formed in 2005. It’s led by managing partner Leo Addimando, along with partners Matthew Pfeiffer, who runs acquisitions, and Jeff Pustizzi, general counsel. The firm has roughly $1 billion of assets under management, including industrial properties and apartments.
